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HISTORY OF 
AMERICAN LITERATURE 




Coiirlesy of the Eigar Allan Poe Memorial Assnrialion, Baltimore 

EDGAR ALLAN POE 

The new statue of Edgar Allan Poe, by Sir Moses Ezekiel of Richmond, Virginia. 
It was presented to the city of Baltimore by the Edgar Allen Poe Memorial Association. 



HISTORY OF 
AMERICAN 
LITERATURE 



By 

LEONIDAS WARREN PAYNE, Jr. 

Associate Professor of English in The University of Texas 

Author of "Southern Literary Readings," 

"American Literary Readitigs" 

and "Learn to Spell" 



RAND McNALLY & COMPANY 
Chicago New York 



Copyright, lOJg, by 
Leonidas Warren Payne, Jr. 







■JAN ?4 I9!H 



ICLA5I2140 



THE CONTENTS 

The Preface 
I. THE COLONIAL PERIOD, 1607-1765 page 

General Characteristics i 

Literature in the Southern Colonies 3 

Literature in the New England Colonies 12 

The New England Annalists and Historians .... 14 

The New England Poets 18 

The New England Theologians 22 

Literature in the Middle Colonies 30 

General Reference Books for American Literature .... 40 

Special Reference Books for Colonial Literature 41 

II. THE REVOLUTIONARY AND FORMATIVE PERIOD, 
1765-1800 

Preliminary Statement 44 

Historical Background 45 

The Orators 48 

Political Writers 51 

The Poetry %• • • ^^ 

Drama and Fiction 79 

Special Reference Books for Revolutionary Literature ... 85 

III. ARTLSTIC OR CREATIVE PERIOD, 1800-1900 

Preliminary Statement 88 

I. The New York and Middle Atlantic States Group ... 89 

The Major Writers 89 

The Minor New York and Middle Atlantic States Poets . 127 

The New York Essayists and General Prose Writers . 140 

The New York Novelists and Story Writers 145 

1 1 . The New England Group 1 49 

Preliminary Survey 149 

The Rise of Unitarianism 149 

The Transcendental Movement 151 

The Rise of the Doctrine of Abolition 155 

The Major New England Writers 156 

V 



vi History oj American Literature 

PAGE 

The New England Historians and Essayists .... 224 

The Minor Poets of New England 229 

The New Poetry in New England 234 

The New England Writers of Fiction 239 

III. The Southern Group - 246 

Preliminary Survey 246 

Southern Orators 251 

The Major Southern Poets 253 

Minor Southern Poets 282 

Southern Writers of Fiction 290 

IV'. The Central and Far Western Group 312 

Preliminary Survey 312 

The Major Western Writers 320 

Other Western Poets 344 

The New Poetry in the West 358 

Minor Western Writers of Fiction 362 

Texas Writers 372 

Special Reference Books for Nineteenth Century American 

Literature 374 



THE PREFACE 

It is now an accepted doctrine among teachers of English 
that the study of the history of Hterature should take a 
comparatively small part of the high-school student's time 
and that the first-hand study of the literature itself should 
receive his largest effort. But in order to approach intelli- 
gently the actual literature of any period or country and to 
gain a clear grasp of its progress as a whole, the young stu- 
dent will need at least a brief handbook to set before him in 
organized form the essential facts of the literary history 
of that period or country. American literature, particularly 
in the two earlier periods, is but an interpretation of the 
political, social, and industrial life of the growing nation. 
In a brief survey of these early periods it will only be neces- 
sary to refresh the high-school student's memory regarding 
the historical backgrounds and to list for him the chief 
writers of the peculiar kinds of literature produced during 
these periods, giving an occasional quotation from the more 
important literary monuments in order to satisfy the stu- 
dent's antiquarian interest and intellectual curiosity as to 
the sorts of material which our ancestors produced in these 
periods. In the later period, beginning about 1800 and 
extending down to the present, the student will need a 
somewhat fuller treatment of the artistic or permanent 
literature, mainly because the aim of the teacher here will 
be to lead the student to read more deeply in this literature, 
both because of its nearness to him and because of its 
greater artistic importance. 

The plan of this "History of American Literature," then, 
is to treat briefly the Colonial and Revolutionary periods, 
giving the essential facts of the literary history, together 
with a few illustrative quotations from such of the authors as 
may be of most interest to young students; and to treat in 
more detail the important literary movements and figures 
of the nineteenth century, bringing the record down through 
practically the first two decades of the twentieth century. 
In this later literature the student will find much that will 
appeal directly to his interests, and here, too, the teacher will 



X The Preface 

naturally find the bulk of the literary material to be placed 
before the high-school students for closer study and analysis. 
Hence it will be well to organize into more definitive groups 
and schools the important writers of this later period, and 
to give a fuller treatment of both the major and the minor 
authors whose works undoubtedly go to make up the 
great body of our artistic and creative literature. 

No course in American literature can be satisfactorily 
based on the history alone. As has already been said, the 
selections themselves should be placed in the hands of the 
student if he is to gain any permanent knowledge of the 
development of our national literature. In order to meet 
the widespread demand for a single volume containing the 
choicest American classics edited in such a form as to make 
them easily comprehensible to young students, I have pre- 
pared a companion volume to this History of American 
Literature, under the title of American Literary Readings. 
The two volumes, together with such additional outside 
reading as may be assigned, will make a fairly complete 
elementary course in American literature. 

I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to three of my 
colleagues in the English department of the University of 
Texas — namely, Professors Killis Campbell and Robert 
Adger Law and Mr. Earl L. Bradsher, each of whom has 
saved me from numerous pitfalls by reading the material in 
manuscript or in proof sheets. I am also deeply indebted 
to Professor Percy H. Boynton, of the University of Chicago, 
who read the manuscript in its initial form and made many 
valuable suggestions for its improvement. My thanks are 
also due to Mr. Edgar Lee Masters, Mr. Carl Sandburg, 
and Miss Amy Lowell for permission to use complete short 
poems from their copyrighted books; to the Houghton 
Mifflin Company for permission to use the poem "Life" 
from the works of Edward Rowland Sill ; to Edwin Markham 
for permission to reprint entire his latest revision of "The 
Man with the Hoe" ; and to Julian Richard Hovey for per- 
mission to quote two stanzas from "The Call of the Bugles" 
by Richard Hovey. 

L. W. Payne, Jr. 
Austin, Texas, 
October, igi8 



HISTORY OF 
AMERICAN LITERATURE 

I. THE COLONIAL PERIOD, 1607-1765 

General Characteristics 

Historical Background. The colonial period of our 
literature extends from the first permanent settlement at 
Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, to the calling of the Stamp 
Act Congress in 1765. It is the period of beginnings, the 
seedtime, as it were, for the later growth into flower and 
fruitage during the period of our independent national life. 
The first business of the colonists was to establish themselves 
on the new continent — to clear the forests and build homes, 
open up farms and pasture lands, construct roads and estab- 
lish means of transportation and communication, overcome 
the hostile Indian tribes, and organize all the forces for a 
new religious, social, and economic life. This constructive 
and formative work naturally consumed the interests and 
energies of the colonists so largely that little time was left 
for the development of literattire. Moreover, there was no 
unity of government or of purpose in the earlier part of the 
colonial period. Different European nations had established 
colorues on the new continent, and a struggle for supremacy 
inevitably followed. The history of the colonial period 
gives us the details of this struggle for supremacy, a struggle 
which, after narrowing down to a fierce conflict between 
France and England, was finally settled by the Treaty of 
Paris in 1763 in favor of England. 

Tendencies toward union. Naturally during the latter 
part of this struggle the English colonies were drawn into a 

[I] 



2 History of American Literature 

closer union for defense against their common enemy, the 
French and their Indian allies; and this tendency toward 
union and self-defense very soon began to express itself in 
opposition to the restrictive and oppressive policies of 
government imposed upon the colonies by the mother 
country, England. The second large task of the American 
colonists, then, was that of consolidation and united action 
for the purposes of obtaining absolute independence from 
foreign domination. In 1765, two years after the conclusion 
of the Treaty of Paris, the Stamp Act was passed by the 
English Parliament, and within a few months a colonial 
congress, called the Stamp Act Congress, met in Philadel- 
phia to protest against this unjust method of taxation. 
This significant event may be said to mark the beginning of 
formal opposition to English sovereignty over the American 
colonies, and may be considered as marking the close of the 
colonial period. 

Nature of colonial literature. The literature of the 
colonial period is, as we might expect, given over largely to 
purely descriptive, historical, and theological writing. The 
new country, the strange kinds of life revealed here, and 
the incidents attendant upon the hardships and dangers of 
pioneer settlement furnished the first material for record. 
Geographical and descriptive narratives and theological 
discussions, then, make up the great body of the written 
record of the period. Practically no purely artistic literature 
was produced. The little poetry that was composed was 
for the most part crude and bungling and based on artificial 
foreign models. No purely imaginative literature was 
written during these strenuous times, and hence the written, 
records which have come down to us, important as they are 
from a historical or antiquarian standpoint, have little or 
no artistic value or purely literary appeal for modern readers. 

Method of treatment. In a brief survey of the principal 
literary products of the colonial period, we may conveniently 



The Colonial Period 3 

consider them under three groups — namely, those in the 
Southern Colonies, in the New England Colonies, and in 
the Middle Colonies. We must constantly bear in mind 
the significant fact that during this period there was not 
one central government in any of the geographical divisions, 
but many and diverse governments in each of them. Hence 
we need not look for a national or American spirit in our 
literatvire until the colonies shall have become united in the 
struggle against foreign domination. The early literature 
was quite as largely English as American, but we may call 
it American because it deals with American scene and his- 
tory, and because it was written by English settlers on 
American soil, and partially, particularly in the last half of 
the Colonial period, by writers who were bom and educated 
in America. 

Literature in the Southern Colonies 

Captain John Smith: "A True Relation." To the South- 
ern Colonies belongs the primary place in date, though not 
in importance, in our early literature. The first writer of 
note whose work may be called American in color and 
subject-matter was Captain John Smith (1579-1631), a 
native of Lincolnshire, England. Moved by the typical 
Elizabethan spirit of adventure and daring, he ran away 
from home when he was fifteen years old and became a 
soldier of fortune. After passing through nimierous perilous: 
and romantic adventures in Europe, Asia, and Africa during 
the first ten years of his travels, he rettimed to England in 
time to join the Virginia Expedition in 1607. The next year 
he sent back to England a long letter, which was published 
under the title A True Relation of Some Occurrences and 
Accidents of Noate as Hath Hapned Since the First Planting 
of the Colony. This pamphlet is now usually regarded 
as the first book in American literatiu-e. It contains an 



4 History of American Literature 

account of the first year in the life of the Virginia Colony, 
with much information about the new country, its inhabi- 
tants, its geography, and the hardships and dangers suffered 
by the colonists, particularly in their contact with the 
savage Indians. Naturally, Captain Smith is the hero of 
many of the incidents recorded. The account is written in a 
vivacious, picturesque, and forceful style, and the book is 
on the whole, perhaps, the most trustworthy of all the 
writings of this remarkable man. 

Smith's other works. Among Captain Smith's numerous 
later publications may be mentioned his A Map of Virginia 
(1612), yl Description of New England (1616), New England's 
Trials (162 0-1622), and The General Historic of Virginia, 
New England, and the Summer Isles (1624). It is interest- 
ing to note that Smith wrote his Description of New England 
before the first permanent settlement had been established 
in that part of America. The title of "Admiral of New 
England" was conferred upon him by the English govern- 
ment, and he proudly bore this designation during the 
remainder of his life, even though it amounted to nothing 
more than an empty honor. Only one of Smith's later 
works needs to be discussed in more detail. 

"The General Historie of Virginia, New England, and the 
Summer Isles." This is an enlarged end more highly 
colored account than A True Relation, and was written 
long after Captain Smith had returned to England. In 
this later volume the account of Captain Smith's rescue by 
the intercession of the Indian princess Pocahontas is given. 
The romantic nature of this incident, no mention of which 
is made in Smith's earlier work, A True Relation, nor in any 
other early narrative, has caused some critics to question the 
authenticity of the Pocahontas story and even the historical 
value of all Captain Smith's writings. In fact, The General 
Historie is so unreliable that nothing in it can be accepted 
unless supported by other evidence. We should not hesitate, 




CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH 

From the margin of his map of New England in " A Description of New England,' 
London, 1616, which now hangs in the rooms of the Massachusetts Historical Society 
in Boston. 



6 History of American Literature 

however, to give John Smith credit for the exceedingly interest- 
ing and informing nature of his material and for the vivid 
and dramatic style in which he has presented it. While he 
cannot in any sense be classed as a great writer, he unques- 
tionably will be remembered as the first Englishman who 
successfully made literary capital of American scene and life. 
The Pocahontas story. The following passage taken from 
The General Historic will illustrate Smith's style and also 
give the central portion of the Pocahontas story: 

At last they brought him to Meronocomoco, where was Powhatan, 
their Emperor. Here more than two hundred of those grim Courtiers 
stood wondering at him, as he had beene a monster; till Powhatan 
and his trayne had put themselues in their greatest braveries. Before 
a fire vpon a seat like a bedsted, he sat covered with a great robe, 
made of Rarowcun skinnes, and all the tayles hanging by. On either 
hand did sit a young wench of i6 or i8 yeares, and along on each side 
the house, two rowes of men, and behind them as many women, with 
all their heads and shoulders painted red: many of their heads bedecked 
with the white downe of Birds; but every one with something: and a 
great chayne of white beads about their necks. 

At his entrance before the King, all the people gaue a great shout. 
The Queene of Appamatuck was appointed to bring him water to wash 
his hands, and another brought him a bunch of feathers, in stead of a 
Towell to dry them: having feasted him after their best barbarous 
manner they could, a long consultation was held, but the conclusion 
was, two great stones were brought before Powhatan: then as many as 
could layd hands on him, dragged him to them, and thereon laid his 
head, and being ready with their clubs, to beate out his braines, Poca- 
hontas the Kings dearest daughter, when no intreaty could prevaile, 
got his head in her armes, and laid her owne vpon his to saue him from 
death: whereat the Emperour was contented he should Hue to make 
him hatchets, and her bells, beads, and copper; for they thought him 
as well of all occupations as themselues. For the King himselfe will 
make his owne robes, shooes, bowes, arrowes, pots; plant, hunt, or doe 
any thing so well as the rest. 

William Strachey. Another early work remarkable for 
its vivid and powerful prose description is a True Reportory 
of the Wracke and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates, Knight, 




RUINS OF CHURCH TOWER, JAMESTOWN 



8 History of American Literature 

upon and from the Hands of the Bermudas (1610). The 
expedition under Sir Thomas Gates arrived at Jamestown 
in 16 10 after a stormy voyage and a shipwreck on the Ber- 
muda Islands. WilUam Strachey, who seems to have been 
secretary of the expedition, wrote this remarkably realistic 
account of the sea storm and the wreck, and it is not at all 
to be wondered at that Shakespeare made use of some of the 
picturesque and dramatic phrases of this narrative when he 
came to describe the storm at sea in The Tempest, written 
about 161 1. 

George Sandys. The first ambitious effort in poetical 
composition and scholarly attainment in America must be 
accredited to George Sandys (i 577-1644), who, in the face 
of almost insuperable obstacles in the newly settled con- 
tinent, made a rimed translation of fifteen books of Ovid's 
Metamorphoses, and published it in London in 1626. It is 
a noteworthy fact that this translation was made in the 
heroic couplet, the vehicle afterward widely used by Dryden, 
Pope, and their followers, in the translations and satirical 
poems of the classical age in EngHsh literature. Both 
Dryden and Pope read Sandys' translation, and commented 
favorably upon the American colonist's work. Professor 
Moses Coit Tyler in his History of American Literature, 
Colonial Period (i6o'j-i'^6j), speaks of Sandys' translation 
as "the first monument of English poetry, of classical 
scholarship, and of deliberate literary art reared on these 
shores." 

"Epitaph on Nathaniel Bacon." The single noteworthy 
original poem that has come down to us from the Southern 
Colonies is the "Epitaph on Nathaniel Bacon," composed 
by some unknown person. This dirge was discovered in the 
Burwell Papers, so called from the name of the distinguished 
Virginia family who secured the papers and first gave them 
to the public. The manuscripts dealing with the so-called 
Bacon's Rebellion (1676) were revealed about a century after 



The Colonial Period g^ 

the stirring events which they chronicle. The "Epitaph" is 
said to have been written by Bacon's body servant. This 
might well have been true, for in those days many white 
persons of excellent education were indentured to service to 
the richer colonists. Professor Tyler speaks enthusiastically 
of this noble dirge, saying that it has stateliness, energy, 
and a mournful eloquence, reminding one of the commemo- 
rative verse of Ben Jonson.^ 

Southern chroniclers. In the latter part of the colonial 
period, several worthy chroniclers arose in the Southern 
Colonies, notably Robert Beverly, author of The History 
and Present State of Virginia (1705) ; William Stith, president 
of William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Virginia, and 
author of the History of the First Discovery and Settle- 
ment of Virginia (1747); and Colonel William Byrd (1674- 
1744), a highly cultured and wealthy Virginia planter, 
author of the History of the Dividing Line Run in ijzS. 

William Byrd. "Colonel" William Byrd-' (i 674-1 744) 
deserves special attention as an example of the Cavalier 
type in the Southern Colonies, for he is thoroughly typical 
of the high-class Virginia gentleman of colonial times. 
He was well educated both by travel and study, and he 
collected around him all the evidences of comfort and cul- 
ture that wealth and social standing could at' that time 
attract to American shores. His library was perhaps the 
largest in America diiring colonial times. The extensive 
correspondence and methodical joiurnals of Byrd, though 
not published in his own day, give evidence of the influence 
of the select literature with which his wide reading made 
him familiar. Like his Cavalier ancestors, Byrd cultivated 
literature as an elegant pastime rather than for the fame 

1 Moses Coit Tyler, History of American Literature, Colonial Period 
{1607-1765), page 18. The " Epitaph " has been frequently reprinted in 
collections of American verse. 

2His father, William Byrd, Senior, was a real colonel in the early militia, 
and the second William Byrd has always been called Colonel Byrd, by 
courtesy it is supposed. 



lO 



History of American Literature 



which pubHcation would have brought him. His Hterary 
remains lay in manuscript until 1841, and it was not until 




WESTOVER. THE HOME OF WILLIAM BYRD 



the beginning of the twentieth century that his productions 
were given to the public in carefully edited form. Since 
his work was first published, William Byrd's reputation as 
an entertaining writer and an excellent prose stylist has 
grown to such proportions that he is now placed in the first 
rank of colonial prose writers. The We stover MSS, or The 
History of the Dividing Line Run in 1728, is a record of his 
experiences with a surveying party as a member of the 
commission appointed to settle the disputed boundary line 
between North Carolina and Virginia. Naturally Byrd was 
more or less a partisan for Virginia, and his descriptions of 
the dismal North Carolina swamps and especially his witty 
and satiric portraits of the uncultured North Carolinians still 
provoke lively mirth in all readers who dip into his narrative. 
The book is full of lively descriptions of the strange plant 



The Colonial Period ii 

and animal life and natural phenomena of the new country, 
and many amusing incidents are interspersed to relieve the 
tedium of the narrative of the progress of the surveying 
party. The following bear story will illustrate Byrd's style. 

One of the Young Fellows we had sent to bring up the tired Horses 
entertained us in the Evening with a remarkable adventure he had 
met with that day. He had straggled, it seems, from his Company in 
a mist, and made a cub of a year old betake itself to a Tree. While 
Tie was new-priming his piece, with intent to fetch it down, the Old 
Gentlewoman appeared, and perceiving her Heir apparent in Distress, 
advanc'd open-mouth'd to his relief. The man was so intent upon his 
Game, that she had approacht very near him before he perceived her. 
But finding his Danger, he faced about upon the Enemy, which immedi- 
ately rear'd upon her posteriors, & put herself in Battle Array. The 
Man, admiring at the Bear's assurance, endeavour'd to fire upon Her, 
but by the Dampness of the Priming, his Gun did not go off. He 
cockt it a second time, and had the same misfortune. After missing 
Fire twice, he had the folly to punch the Beast with the muzzle of his 
Piece; but mother Bruin, being upon her Guard, seized the Weapon 
■with her Paws, and by main strength wrenched it out of the Fellow's 
Hands. The Man being thus fairly disarm'd, thought himself no 
longer a Match for the Enemy, and therefore retreated as fast as his 
Legs could carry him. The brute naturally grew bolder upon the 
flight of her Adversary, and pursued him with all her heavy speed. 
For some time it was doubtful whether fear made one run faster, or 
Fury the other. But after an even course of about 50 yards the Man 
had the Mishap to Stumble over a Stump, and fell down Ms full Length. 
He now wou'd have sold his Life a Penny-worth; but the Bear, appre- 
hending there might be some Trick in the Fall, instantly halted, and 
lookt with much attention on her Prostrate Foe. In the mean while, 
the Man had with great presence of Mind resolved to make the Bear 
believe he was dead, by lying Breathless on the Ground, in Hopes that 
the Beast would be too generous to kill him over again. To carry on 
the Farce he acted the Corpse for some time without dareing to raise 
his head, to see how near the Monster was to him. But in about two 
Minutes to his unspeakable Comfort, he was rais'd from the Dead by 
the Barking of a Dog, belonging to one of his companions, who came 
Seasonably to his Rescue, and drove the Bear from pursuing the Man 
to take care of her Cub, which she fear'd might now fall into a second 
Distress. 



12 History oj American Literature 

Literature in the New England Colonies 
Character of the Puritans. Both the Plymouth (1620) 
and the Massachusetts Bay (1630) colonies were settled by 
the Puritans, or as they are usually denominated, the 
Pilgrim Fathers. The Puritans were so called because they 
demanded a purer form of religion than was afforded by the 
established church of England. They insisted that the 
will of God, as revealed through the Scriptures and the 
consciences of men, shotdd be the supreme authority in 
all rehgious matters. Hence they were opposed to all 
prescribed church forms and religious ceremonies. They 
held to the Calvinistic system of theology, proclaiming that 
man was created with full freedom of will, and that after 
the fall of Adam, God had provided a means through the 
substitution of Christ, whereby the chosen ones might be 
saved from the penalties of sin and received up into heaven. 
The whole purpose of man's life on earth was, first, to make 
his salvation sure; and second, to subdue the body in order 
to prepare the soul for the joys of heaven. All the frivoli- 
ties and pleasures of life ought to be suppressed, they 
believed, and all men ought to engage in religious activities, 
such as reading the Scriptures, attending divine worship, 
and praising God and praying continuously, and so strive 
in every way to bring the human will into harmony with 
the will of God. This austere and serious attitude toward 
life dominated the temper of the early Puritan settlers in 
Massachusetts, and in it we shall find the key to the inter- 
pretation of our early literature in the New England colonies. 
Their self-dependency. The Puritans took life seriously. 
They kept fuller and more trustworthy records of their 
history than did the Cavaliers in Virginia. Forced out of 
England because of their non-conformity in religious matters, 
they were practically cut off from the mother country and 
made almost wholly self-dependent. They developed their 
own system of education, founding Harvard College as early 



The Colonial Period 13 

as 1636 and establishing a system of public education at a 
similarly early date. They refused to read English books and 
periodicals, and presently began to supply their own intel- 
lectual needs by newspapers, almanacs, and home-made text- 
books. In 1639 the first printing press in this coimtry was 
set up at Cambridge, and on it the Bay Psalm Book was 
printed in 1640. Their historians kept painstaking and 
extensive records, their preachers wrote many long sermons 
and theological works, their leaders enacted many restrictive 
personal laws, and on the whole the New England settlers 
soon developed a more or less complete and independent 
system of social and religious life. 

Homogeneity of their literature. Moreover, the Puritans 
were more alike in their ideals and more unified and deter- 
mined in their purposes than were the Southern colonists. 
They planned a sort of ideal government with God as the 
invisible ruler, and they desired to carry out their plan far 
away from England on the free shores of the wild, new 
continent. They wished to attract recruits from England, 
however, and so they were constantly advertising among 
the dissenters in England the advantages of their form of 
worship and their absolute freedom from English domination 
on the distant American shores. In reality there was little 
true religious freedom offered, however, for the Puritans 
wanted everybody in their colony to submit to their religious 
ideas, as is clearly shown by their severe treatment of the 
Quakers, Roger WilHams, and the Episcopalians. The 
dominant ideal of the New England Colonies, then, was 
based on their Calvinistic theology. Their histories are 
largely the record of their religious activities; the main 
body of their literature is made up of sermons and theologi- 
cal works; and what little poetry they produced was also 
written in their characteristic tone of Calvinistic theology, 
as is shown in "The Day of Doom" by Michael Wiggles- 
worth, as an example of the worst, or in "Contemplations" 



14 History of American Literature 

by Mrs. Anne Bradstreet, as an example of the best poetry 
of the period. 

Quality of their literature. The quality of this kind of 
literature is not very high if judged on purely esthetic 
grounds. There is no real poetry, no drama, no purely 
imaginative literature; and except for its historical, theo- 
logical, and antiquarian interest, and its revelation of the 
religious, political, and social life of our Puritan ancestors, 
the literature of the whole colonial period presents little 
that need detain the young student. Comparatively, how- 
ever, the works produced in New England are more 
important than those produced in the other colonies. For 
our present purposes we may speak of the New England 
authors in three groups, the chief annalists and historians, 
the most notable verse makers, and the great preachers and 
theologians. 

NEW ENGLAND ANNALISTS AND HISTORIANS 

William Bradford. Among the New England annalists 
the first name is that of Governor William Bradford (1588- 
1657). He came over with the Plymouth colony in 1620, 
and for a number of years kept a careful journal of the early 
activities of the settlers He was assisted in this work by 
Edward Winslow, another prominent member of the colony, 
and in 1622 there appreared in London a part of their 
journal, which became known as Mourfs Relation, so called 
because the prefatory note was signed by "G. Moiu-t." 
Bradford's great work. The History of Plymouth Plantation, 
was begun in 1630 and continued through twenty years. 
It lay in manuscript for over two hundred years, during 
which time it had quite a romantic series of travels, landing 
finally in the library of the Bishop of London and remaining 
there many years before it was printed in the Annals of the 
Massachusetts Historical Society about the middle of the 
nineteenth century. The manuscript was given to the 



The Colonial Period 15 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1896, and it is now 
carefully guarded as one of the chief historical treasures in 
the possession of the State Library at Boston. 

John Winthrop. Governor John Winthrop (i 588-1 649), 
of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, also kept a careful 
joiuTial, beginning his record with the sailing of his vessel 
from England in 1630 and continuing it to the end of his life. 
This journal also lay in manuscript until near the end of 
the eighteenth century, when it was published under the 
title of The Journal of John Winthrop (1790). Early in the 
nineteenth century (1825) it was republished with some • 
additional Winthrop manuscripts under the title of The 
History of New England from i6jo to i64g. There is some 
excellent prose in this so-called history, notably the elaborate 
and sound definition of true liberty; but the work as a 
whole is, like Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation, 
far more interesting as a source book of historical facts than 
as a product of literary value. As a sample of the exposi- 
tory prose style of the colonial period we may quote a para- 
graph from what Winthrop called his "little speech" on 
liberty, found in his Journal for the year 1645. 

For the other point concerning liberty, I observe a great mistake 
in the country about that. There is a twofold liberty, natural (I mean 
as our nature is now corrupt) and civil or federal. The first is common 
to man with beasts and other creatures. By this, man as he stands in 
relation to man simply, hath liberty to do what he lists: it is a liberty 
to evil as well as to good. This liberty is incompatible and inconsistent 
with authority, and cannot endure the least restraint of the most just 
authority. The exercise and maintaining of this liberty makes men 
grow more evil, and in time to be worse than brute beasts: omnes 
sumus licentia deleriores. This is that great enemy of truth and peace, 
that wild beast, which all the ordinances of God are bent against, to 
restrain and subdue it. The other kind of liberty I call civil or federal : 
it may also be termed moral, in reference to the covenant between 
God and man, in the moral law, and the politic covenants and con- 
stitutions, amongst men themselves. This liberty is the proper end 
and object of authority, and cannot subsist without it; and it is a liberty 



1 6 History oj American Literature 

to that only which is good, just, and honest. This liberty you are to 
stand for with the hazard (not only of your goods, but) of your lives, 
if need be. Whatsoever crosseth this is not authority, but a distemper 
thereof. This liberty is maintained and exercised in a way of subjec- 
tion to authority; it is of the same kind of liberty wherewith Christ 
hath made us free. ... If you stand for your natural corrupt liberties, 
and will do what is good in your own eyes, you will not endure the 
least weight of authority, but will murmur, and oppose, and be always 
striving to shake off that yoke; but if you will be satisfied to enjoy such 
civil and lawful liberties, such as Christ allows you, then will you 
quietly and cheerfully submit unto that authority which is set over 
you, in all the administrations of it, for your good. Wherein, if we 
fail at any time, we hope we shall be willing (by God's assistance) 
to hearken to good advice from any of you, or in any other way of God; 
so shall your liberties be preserved, in upholding the honor and power of 
authority amongst you.i 

Thomas Morton. In contrast to the uniform seriousness 
of these Puritan annahsts, the v^ork of the sportive, romantic, 
and somewhat whimsical Cavaher and Episcopahan, Thomas 
Morton (?-i646), should be briefly treated. He was the 
leading spirit in a small group of traders who attempted to 
found a colony of adherents to the Church of England at 
Mount Wollaston (now Quincy, just south of Boston), 
better known in history and literature as Merry Mount. 
These Cavaliers retained their English customs, among 
others the Mayday celebration, in which they set up a 
Maypole, and engaged in the joyous amatory pranks char- 
acteristic of this English festival. The Puritans would not 
tolerate this band of light-hearted merrymakers, and Gov- 
ernor Bradford sent Captain Miles Standish to disperse 
them. Hawthorne has based one of his stories, "The 
Maypole of Merry Mount," on this incident. Morton was 
forcibly transported to England by the Puritans. He 
responded to this treatment by stirring up in England 
considerable opposition to the Massachusetts colony. He 
published a book called The New English Canaan (1637), 

1 Reproduced from Old South Leaflets, No. 66. 



The Colonial Period 17 

in which he praises in extravagant terms the advantages of 
New England, urges members of the EngHsh Church to 
become settlers, and attacks with humorous satire the 
religious and social customs of the Puritans. For example, 
he speaks of the Puritans as "winking," that is closing 
their eyes, when they pray, " because they think themselves 
so perfect in the highe way to heaven, that they can find it 
blindfold." 

Judge Sewall's diary. Among the numerous later 
annalists. Judge Samuel Sewall (1652-173 o) should receive 
special mention. He was brought to America when he was 
about nine years old, and hence he may be said to have been 
reared and chiefly educated in the Massachusetts colonies. 
He was a man of exemplary character, being esteemed as a 
tj^ical Puritan gentleman of his time. He accimiulated 
considerable wealth, became first a minister and then a 
judge, and finally rose to be the chief justice of the colony. 
He took part as one of the seven judges in the arraignment 
and condemnation of the Salem witches, but he afterward 
publicly acknowledged his error in so doing and prayed God 
to forgive him for this grievous sin. He kept a fairly com- 
plete diary from 1673 to 1729, and it is upon this that his 
fame chiefly rests. His minute records of the political, 
religious, and social life of his times make a veritable mine 
for the students of the history of this period. The quaint 
reference to the punishment of his children for playing at 
prayer time and eating during the "Retixm Thanks," and 
especially his naive account of his courtship of several 
estimable ladies, make entertaining reading even in the 
present day. The value of a personal diary must be esti- 
mated on the frankness and fullness of the picture of life 
presented rather than upon formal literary excellences; as a 
diary Judge Sewall's account ranks among the best of its 
kind. Another work written and printed by Judge Sewall 
in Boston, a pamphlet entitled The Selling of Joseph; A 
2 



History of American Literature 



Memorial (1700), attacks the custom of buying and selling 
slaves in the Massachusetts colony. This tract is now 
remembered as the first anti-slavery document produced 
in America. 

THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

The Bay Psalm Book. There was little or no poetry 
worthy of the name in the New England colonies. The 




From the painting by G. H. Boughton 
PURITANS GOING TO CHURCH 

Puritan mind was averse to works of pure imagination in 
any form, and verse was only tolerated as a handmaiden of 
religious instruction and admonition. A few stiff eulogies 
in the form of memorial verses have survived in New Eng- 
land, but they are hardly worth reading. The Bay Psalm 
Book is a typical example of the crude and almost barbarous 
literary taste of the early divines. A number of the leading 
ministers, among them Richard Mather, Thomas Welde, 
and John Eliot, were appointed to translate the Psalms for 
use in the song service of the churches. The volume was 
issued from the Cambridge printing press in 1640, and thus 
has the distinction of being the first important book pub- 
lished within the present limits of the United States. The 
following selection from the awkward and ineuphonious 



The Colonial Period 19 

translation will aptly illustrate what the New England 
settlers accepted as poetry: 

23 A PSALME OF DAVID 

The Lord to mee a shepheard is, 
want therefore shall not I. 

2 Hee in the folds of tender-grasse, 

doth cause mee downe to lie: 
To waters calme me gently leads 

3 Restore my soule doth hee: 
he doth in paths of righteousnes : 

for his names sake leade mee. 
4 4 Yea though in valley of deaths shade 

I walk, none ill I'le feare: 
because thou art with mee, thy rod, 
and staffe my comfort are. 

5 For mee a table thou hast spread, 

in presence of my foes : 
thou dost annoynt my head with oyle, 
my cup it over-fiowes. 

6 Goodnes & mercy surely shall 

all my dayes follow mee: 
and in the Lords house I shall dwell 
so long as dayes shall bee. 

When compared with the finely modulated prose of the 
King James version of the Bible (161 1), this uncouth verse 
becomes ridiculous. 

Anne Bradstreet. There is one New England writer, how- 
ever, who possessed considerable poetical talent, a woman, 
Anne Bradstreet (16 12-1672), known as the "tenth Muse." 
She was born in England, but came to America with her 
father, Thomas Dudley, who afterwards became Governor of 
Massachusetts, and her husband, Simon Bradstreet, who also 
became governor of the colony. She was a woman of fine 
.qualities, making her personality felt in the life of the colony 
as well as in her own household of eight children. With 
all of her other duties, and in spite of ill health brought on 
because of the exposure and hardships incident to colonial 



20 History of American Literature 

life, she found time to compose a considerable volume of 
poems. Her manuscripts were carried to England, and in 
1650 they were published under the title, The Tenth Muse 
Lately Sprung up in America: Or Several Poems, Compiled 
with Great Variety of Wit a^nd Learning. We are pleased 
to know that the lady is not herself responsible for this 
aspiring and self-laudatory title, but that her London pub- 
lisher thus elaborated it to meet the demands of his trade. 
There are included in this volume five long poems in heroic 
couplets on the four elements, the four humors in man, the 
four ages of man, the four seasons, the four monarchies;^ 
and several shorter poems, among them "Contemplations," 
which is considered her best production. The eighth 
and ninth stanzas from this last-named poem will show, 
in spite of certain strained conceits, that Anne Bradstreet 
took real delight in nature, that she was genuinely sincere 
in her moral sentiments, and that she had a fairly good 
ear for rhythm. 

Silent alone, where none or saw, or heard. 

In pathless paths I lead my wandring feet; 

My humble Eyes to lofty Skyes I rear'd 

To sing some Song, my mased Muse thought meet. 

My great Creator I would magnifie. 

That nature had, thus decked liberally 

But Ah, and Ah, again, my imbecility! 

I heard the merry grasshopper then sing, 

The black clad Cricket bear a second part. 

They kept one tune, and plaid on the same string, 

Seeming to glory in their little Art. 

Shall Creatures abject, thus their voices raise? 

And in their kind resound their makers praise: 

Whilst I as mute, can warble forth no higher layes. 

Wigglesworth's "Day of Doom." The most character- 
istic Puritan poem, and the most popular one of its time if 

iSome one has called these five poems "The Quintet of Quarternions." 



The Colonial Period 21 

we may judge from its nimierous editions, was "The Day 
of Doom, or a Poetical Description of the Great and Last 
Judgment" by Michael Wigglesworth (1631-1705). Judged 
by the standards of his own times, Wigglesworth was a great 
poet, but the modem world has practically reversed this 
decision. In colonial homes "The Day of Doom" was 
circulated perhaps more widely than any other poetical 
composition. Children were required to memorize long 
passages from it in order to ground themselves in the Cal- 
vinistic doctrines elaborately rimed into the two hundred 
and twenty-four stanzas of this so-called poem. To the 
modem mind theological doctrines are not, in the first place, 
suitable material to be put into a poem; and in the second 
place, a double ballad stanza with jingling internal rime is 
not a fit vehicle in which to express dignified thought or 
religious emotion. A brief sample of this sort of theological 
argiunent in ballad meter will probably satisfy most modern 
readers.^ The "Plea of the Infants" is the title of the 
section which deals with the problem of the damnation of 
those who die in the innocence of infancy. The children 
make a plea to the Lord for mercy, arguing that since they 
were immediately carried "from the womb unto the tomb" 
they had no chance either to sin or repent; they urge that 
Adam's sin should not be visited on them, since they had 
neither the power nor the opportunity to resist or prevent 
his action. God replies in a long argument and concludes 
his answer to the children's plea as follows: 

"You sinners are, and such a share 
as sinners, may expect; 
' Such you shall have, for I do save 

none but mine own Elect. 



1 Professor Percy H. Boynton thinks that Wigglesworth consciously 
wrote his poem in this jingling measure to attract popular attention, and 
argues that this poet was capable of a higher strain, as is proved by certain 
lines written in heroic couplets and printed at the end of "The Day of 
Doom." See American Poetry, p. 600. 



22 History of American Literature 

Yet to compare your sin with their 

who liv'd a longer time, 
I do confess yours is much less, 

though every sin's a crime. 
"A crime it is, therefore in bliss 

you may not hope to dwell; 
But unto you I shall allow 

the easiest room in HeU." 
The glorious King thus answering, 

they cease, and plead no longer; 
Their Consciences must needs confess 

his Reasons are the stronger. 

THE THEOLOGIANS 

Theological writings. While the historical records and the 
poetical productions may be more frequently consulted by 
modem readers, there is no doubt that it is the theological 
literature — the sermons, philosophical and religious tracts, 
and ecclesiastical histories — that most characteristically 
represents our Puritan forefathers. As literature, most 
of these productions are now worthless ; but as representative 
products of the Puritan mind and temper, they are invalu- 
able. A long list of influential divines with their extensive 
religious publications might be compiled, but we can get a 
fairly adequate conception of the theological writing of the 
time by considering the work of the most prominent of them. 

Nathaniel Ward's "The Simple Cobler of Aggawamm." 
Before taking up the theological works proper, however, 
we may consider briefly one peculiar prose composition called 
The Simple Cobler of Aggawamm (1647). Nathaniel Ward, 
the author of this curious book, was an Englishman who 
came to America under the persecutions of Laud and became 
a Puritan minister at Agawam (later called Ipswich) in 
what is now Essex County, Massachusetts. The Simple 
Cobler was published in London after Ward's return to 
England and was really addressed to English rather than 
American readers. It is a prose satire, sprinkled here and 



The Colonial Period 23 

there with heroic couplets, attacking religious toleration, 
fashions in dress, and the general political conditions of 
the times. There is no great literary merit in the work, 
but it struck an original note and attracted considerable 
attention in its day, passing through four editions within 
the first year of its publication. Because of his satiric vein, 
his peculiar verbal coinages, and his original phraseology, 
Ward has been called an early American Carlyle, but he is 
perhaps quite as much an early English Carlyle, although, he 
hardly deserves to be mentioned in the same breath with the 
great nineteenth-century English writer. 

The Mather family : Richard Mather. The Mather family 
furnished by far the most distinguished and influential group 
of ministers in New England. A famous old epitaph written 
for the tomb of the first representative of the family who 
came to America, reads: 

Under this stone lies Richard Mather 
Who had a son greater than his father, 
And eke a grandson greater than either. 

This Richard Mather, a non-Conformist minister in England, 
was forbidden to preach and practically forced to emigrate 
to America. He settled at Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 
1635, and at once took rank with the influential ministers 
of the colony. It is said that out of his loins sprang more 
than fourscore preachers. 

Increase Mather. All four of Richard Mather's sons be- 
came ministers, and of these, the youngest. Increase Mather 
(163 9- 1723), became the most prominent man of his time. 
He was graduated from Harvard College and became a 
preacher at once, but decided to go abroad for further study 
at Dublin before beginning his active ministry. Upon his 
return he married the daughter of John Cotton, another 
famous Puritan divine, and thus united in his distinguished 
offspring. Cotton Mather, two famous New England families 



24 History of American Literature 

of preachers. He became minister of the old North Church in 
Boston, and in addition to his ministerial duties, which were 
later shared by his son Cotton, he was called to the presidency 
of Harvard College. In this double position of preacher 
and college president, he exerted an enormous influence. 
He was not only the most distinguished minister and edu- 
cator of his time, but the most powerful force in the political 
life of the colony. He was sent to England to renew the 
provisions of the royal charter under King William HI, and 
his success in obtaining favorable modifications in the 
interest of the colony is said to mark him as a skilful states- 
man. The only work of his that is now usually referred to 
by literary historians is his Essay jor Recording of Illus- 
trious Providences (1684), a work eminently characteristic of 
our Puritan ancestors in their credulity respecting super- 
natural occurrences. 

Cotton Mather. If Increase Mather is reckoned as a 
voluminous writer with his hundred and fifty publications, 
what shall we say of Cotton Mather (1663-17 2 8) with his 
nearly four hundred books, tracts, and sermons? The 
younger Mather was exceedingly precocious in his religious 
and literary development. He confesses that he began to 
engage in prayer from the time that he learned to speak, and 
he spent the greater part of his life poring over his books and 
his own compositions — most of which were of a religious 
character. He was graduated from Harvard College when 
he was seventeen, and even then was looked upon as a mas- 
ter in the whole realm of knowledge. He had an enormous 
capacity for languages, being able to put his compositions 
into five or six different foreign tongues. His literary output 
seems almost superhtiman. On an average, he put forth 
something like a dozen publications a year, besides keeping 
innumerable fasts, spending many hours in private prayer, 
attending public services of all kinds, preaching hundreds of 
sermons, and faithfully attending to the numerous other 



The Colonial Period 25 

pastoral duties of his charge. One of his books, Memorable 
Providences Relating to Witchcraft, was unfortunately quoted 
as an authority during the later cruel persecutions at 
Salem. He is not to be so greatly blamed for his connection 
with witchcraft, however, as his detractors have maintained, 
for he was but inquiring in a careful manner into a com- 
monly accepted mystery of his time, and his personal atti- 
tude toward the unfortunate persons who were thought to 
be "possessed" was eminently kind and humane. 

"Magnalia Christi Americana." The work upon which 
Cotton Mather expended his best talents, the magnum opus 
of Puritanism in America in fact, was his Magnalia Christi 
Americana, or the Ecclesiastical History of New England 
(1702). It was composed in seven books containing (i) 
the antiquities or the founding of the colonies; (2) the lives 
of the governors; (3) the lives of sixty famous divines; (4) an 
account of Harvard College and the lives of its eminent 
graduates; (5) the ecclesiastical history of the churches of 
New England; (6) a record of many illustrious providences; 
and (7) the various wars of the Lord, or the conflicts of the 
church against spiritual adversaries, Indians, and the like. 
This big book has become a veritable storehouse of informa- 
tion and suggestion for later annalists, historians, and 
students of colonial times. Though altogether untrust- 
worthy unless supported by some other authority, it is 
indispensable for an understanding of the Puritan temper and 
mind. ProfesSor Barrett Wendell, the author of the stand- 
ard life of Cotton Mather, says of the Magnalia, "The prose 
epic of New England Puritanism it has been called, setting 
forth in heroic mood the principles, the history, and the 
personal character of the fathers. The principles, theo- 
logical and disciplinary alike, are stated with clearness, 
dignity, and fervor. The history, though its less welcome 
phases are often highly emphasized and its details are 
hampered by no deep regard for minor accuracy, is set forth 



26 History of American Literature 

with sincere ardor which makes its temper more instructive 
than that of many more trustworthy records. And the Hfe- 
Hke portraits of the Lord's chosen, though full of quaintly 
fantastic phrases and artless pedantries, are often drawn 
with touches of enthusiastic beauty."^ 

Jonathan Edwards. The final triumph of Puritanism and 
Calvinistic theology was reached in Jonathan Edwards 
(i 703-1 758). His intellect is recognized as the profoundest 
of the colonial period, and he is still ranked as one of the 
prominent philosophical thinkers of the modern world. In 
comparison with the Mathers and other noted New England 
divines, he lived a quiet and uneventful life, entering but 
slightly into the social and political conflicts of his times. 
Bom in Connecticut in 1703 and descended from a family 
of distinguished preachers, it was but natural that he should 
be educated for the ministry at Yale College in New Haven. 
He was extremely precocious, especially in his early interest 
in philosophical treatises, such as John Locke's "Essay 
Concerning Human Understanding," which he read with 
delight at fourteen. Before he was twelve, he had himself 
written a controversial letter on the nature of spiritual as 
opposed to materialistic opinions and a rather pretentious 
scientific paper on the habits of spiders. He entered college 
at thirteen and was graduated with first honors at seventeen. 
For a time he continued his studies along with his duties 
as a tutor at Yale, and shortly afterward he was ordained 
as a minister. He accepted the pastorate of the North- 
ampton church, and his preaching here is said to have 
prepared the way for two notable revivals, the second one, 
in connection with Whitefield's visit to New England in 
1740, being known as the "Great Awakening." He finally 
became so severe in his ideas of church discipline that a 
division arose in his congregation, and after almost a quarter 
of a century of service he was forced to withdraw from the 

lA Literary History of America, p. 50. 



The Colonial Period 27 

Northampton church. He took up mission work among 
the Indians in the frontier town of Stockbridge, and con- 
tinued to preach and write. Here he composed his great 
work on the Freedom of the Will. It was pubHshed in 1754, 
and so profound was its effect at home and abroad, especially 
in Scotland, where philosophic writing and Calvinistic 
theology were highly esteemed, that Edwards was at once 
recognized as one of the great thinkers of his day. After 
about seven years of seclusion at Stockbridge, he was called 
to be President of the College of New Jersey, now Princeton 
University. But his election to the position was but a 
prelude to his death ; for an epidemic of smallpox broke out 
shortly afterward among the students, and he felt it to be 
his duty to them set an example by submitting to the 
then little understood method of treatment by inoculation. 
Though every known precaution was taken to prevent fatal 
results, the distinguished patient died from the effects of 
the inoculation. 

His marriage. One of the most pleasing chapters of 
Edwards's life is that pertaining to his courtship and mar- 
riage. His own description (written when he was twenty) 
of the beautiful girl of thirteen, Sarah Pierpont, of New 
Haven, who was soon to become his bride, is illustrative of 
the best prose of the colonial period. It admirably shows 
Edwards's tendency toward mysticism and idealism, and 
it is clearly suggestive of the highly spiritualized sentiment 
which we find so prominent in the later New England school 
of writers known as transcendentalists. 

They say there is a young lady in New Haven who is beloved of the 
Great Being who made and rules the world, and that there are certain 
seasons in which this Great Being, in some way or other invisible, comes 
to her and fills her mind with exceeding sweet delight, and that she hardly 
cares for anything except to meditate on him — that she expects after a 
while to be received up where he is, to be raised up out of the world and 
caught up into heaven; being assured that he loves her too well to let 
her remain at a distance from him always. There she is to dwell with 



28 History of American Literature 

him, and to be ravished with his love and delight forever. Therefore, 
if you present all the world before her, with the richest of its treasures, 
she disregards it, and cares not for it, and is unmindful of any pain or 
affliction. She has a strange sweetness in her mind, and singular 
purity in her affections; is most just and conscientious in all her conduct; 
and you could not persuade her to do anything wrong or sinful, if you 
would give her all the world, lest she should offend this Great Being. 
She is of a wonderful sweetness, calmness, and universal benevolence 
of mind ; especially after this great God has manifested himself to her 
mind. She will sometimes go about from place to place, singing sweetly, 
and seems to be always full of joy and pleasure; and no one knows for 
what. She loves to be alone, walking in the fields and groves, and seems 
to have some one invisible always conversing with her. 

''The Freedom of the Will." The Freedom of the Will is 
a masterpiece of subtle reasoning and a recognized classic 
in philosophical literature. Though it is not so vital to us, 
inasmuch as the trend of modern thought seems to be adverse 
to the discussion of such unsolvable theological problems, 
the apparent contradiction of the doctrine of the freedom 
of man's will with the doctrine of God's preordained plan 
and foreknowledge of the progress of the universe was one 
of profound interest to our Puritan fathers. Edwards 
assumed the position of the subordination of man's will to 
the play of circumstance, and argued for the complete 
ascendency of God's will. Just about a century after the 
publication of The Freedom of the Will, Oliver Wendell 
Holmes, as Professor Barrett Wendell has shown, severely 
satirized the whole system of logic whereby Edwards proved 
the soundness of his position. In "The Deacon's Master- 
piece," Holmes proved that a chaise built of equal strength 
in all its parts would wear out all at once. The absurdity 
of the conclusion is evident, and yet the logic is unanswerable 
if you admit the premises. So it is with Edwards's Calvin- 
istic theology; if you accept his premises, you will be forced 
to admit the justness of his conclusions. Holmes implies 
that Edwards's influence lasted just about a hundred years 



The Colonial Period 29 

and then suddenly collapsed. The chaise was Calvinism, 
and Jonathan Edwards was the deacon in Holmes's poem. 
The poet ironically concludes his satire with the couplet, 

End of the wonderful one-hoss shay. 
Logic is logic. That's all I say. 

The style of The Freedom of the Will is clear and forceful, 
even though the abstruseness of the subject-matter some- 
times makes the thought hard to grasp. The few readers 
who are attracted to this philosophical treatise, readily and 
even enthusiastically affirm their admiration of the logical 
force of its thought and the clearness of its style. 

His Sermons: "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.'' 
Much has been written of Edwards's sermons and the 
peculiar powers of his public delivery. The theme most 
frequently adverted to by our historians in writing about 
Edwards as a preacher is that illustrated in the fearful 
sermon called "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." 
It is said that so vivid was the preacher's imagery and so 
real was the terrible punishment he portrayed, that his 
auditors trembled and cried out in distress even in the 
midst of his discourse. He was himself quiet and calm in 
the reading of his sermons, — he almost always spoke with 
his manuscript before him, — but the clearness and vividness 
of his portrayals and the terrible sincerity of his utterances 
wrought his hearers into a frenzy of excitement. Another 
theme which Edwards occasionally dwelt upon was the 
goodness, mercy, and tender love of God toward sinful man, 
and if he excited his hearers to frenzy in his portrayal of 
the tortures of the doomed sinner, he also wrought them 
into an ecstasy of delight at the prospect of a spiritual union 
with a Being of such loving tenderness, marvellous beauty, 
and infinite mercy. He was, of course, a strict Calvinist in 
his theology, and he gave all the powers of his great mind 
to prove by logic the truth of the Calvinistic doctrines; 



30 History of American Literature 

but it must not be forgotten that he was a man of wonderful 
sweetness, purity, and spiritual power in his private life. 
In him were concentrated all of the higher ideals of his 
Puritan ancestors. Though his works are beyond the inter- 
est and capacity of most young readers, we may safely 
assume that his is the profoundest mind that expressed 
itself in our earlv literature. 



Literature in the Middle Colonies 

Characteristics of the literature of the middle colonies. 

With two notable exceptions, namely, Woolman's Journal 
and Franklin's Autobiography, the literary productions in 
the middle colonies were rather mediocre. New York was 
settled by the Dutch, and so played little or no part in 
the early development of American literature in English, 
though its early history later furnished Washington Irving 
with a theme for his delightful burlesque called Knicker- 
bocker's History of New York and also with material for some 
of his best tales and sketches. Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey produced a number of fairly good writers, and when 
Franklin began his successful publishing business, Phila- 
delphia became the rival of Boston as the intellectual center 
of the colonies. William Penn, the founder of the Quaker 
colony in Pennsylvania, wrote some letters well worth 
reading as a revelation of his equable and peace-loving 
nature. In fact, the whole influence of Penn's colony was 
toward material comfort, spiritual freedom, and popular 
education, all of which are conducive to the development of 
literature and the other arts of peace. Not entirely in con- 
trast with the Quaker spirit was the extreme utilitarian 
philosophy of Benjamin Franklin; for industry, frugality, 
prudence in business, and practical honesty are quite as 
distinctive of the Quaker's character as are purity, simplicity, 
and spirittiality. But undoubtedly the Quaker spirit is 



The Colonial Period 31 

most perfectly represented in the eighteenth century by John 
Woolman, just as in the nineteenth century it is best repre- 
sented by his admiring editor, John Greenleaf Whittier. 

John Woolman's "Journal." The saintly Quaker 
preacher, John Woolman (172 0-1772), was born on a New 
Jersey farm. He became an early advocate of the abolition 
of slavery, and his whole life was a protest against all kinds 
of cruelty and oppression. Though Woolman was an un- 
educated man, he felt called by the "inner voice" to go 
about the colonies preaching the beautiful Quaker doctrines 
of obedience to the spirit of God as revealed by conscience, 
purity of life, evenness of temper, non-resistance to evil, 
and tenderness and kindness toward all of God's creatures. 
By his preaching, and especially by the purity and sanity of 
his own example, he attracted many early adherents to the 
anti-slavery cause and led many souls to accept his own 
Quaker doctrines. In a characteristic sentence he says, 
"I have often felt a motion of love to leave some hints in 
writing of rAy experience of the goodness of God," and so, 
early in his career, he began to record his spiritual and 
temporal experiences in his Journal. The book has been 
called "the sweetest and purest autobiography in the 
language." Charles Lamb advised his readers to "get 
the writings of John Woolman by heart"; Henry Crabb 
Robinson spoke of the style of Woolman's Journal as one 
"of the most exquisite purity and grace"; and Whittier in 
his preface to his edition of the Journal says of it that one 
becomes "sensible, as he reads, of a sweetness as of violets." 
In spite of these encomiimis, the average young reader of 
today will hardly find the subtle spirituality of the style 
and subject-matter of this quiet record of a Quaker soul to 
be suited to his interests and tastes. However, Woolman's 
life was so pure and his soul so sensitive to the finer spiritual 
influences that we may unhesitatingly pronounce this unedu- 
cated tailor to be an early American apostle of ' ' sweetness 



32 History of American Literature 

and light." The following excerpt from the Journal will 
illustrate Woolman's quality. 

I kept steadily to meetings; spent first-days afternoons chiefly in 
reading the scriptures and other good books; and was early convinced 
in my mind, that true religion consisted in an inward life, wherein the 
heart doth love and reverence God the Creator, and learns to exercise 
true justice and goodness, not only toward all men, but also toward 
the brute creatures — that as the mind was moved by an inward 
principle to love God as an invisible incomprehensible Being, by the 
same principle it was moved to love him in all his manifestations in th e 
visible world — that, as by his breath the flame of life was kindled in 
all animal sensible creatures, to say we love God as unseen and at the 
same time exercise cruelty toward the least creature moving by his 
life, or by life derived from him, was a contradiction in itself. 

Thomas Godfrey. One poet of the Middle Colonies de- 
serves to be remembered not only as the author of the first 
tragedy written and acted in America, but for the real merit 
and high promise of some of his juvenile poetical efforts. 
Thomas Godfrey (i 736-1 763) was born in Philadelphia. 
After he had attended school for a few months, he was 
apprenticed to a watchmaker. He took an active part in 
the French and Indian War, serving under Colonel George 
Washington, and was later engaged in business in Wil- 
mington, North Carolina. He seems to have been steadily 
attracted toward literature. He studied and found inspira- 
tion in the works of Chaucer, wrote heroic couplets in the 
manner of Pope and Dryden, and composed a tragedy in 
blank verse after the manner of the Elizabethan dramatists. 
This last, "The Prince of Parthia,"^ has become noteworthy 
as the first serious dramatic composition produced in Amer- 
ica It was composed in 1759, published in 1765, and 
played by a professional company at Philadelphia in 1767. 
It is written in somewhat high-sounding and extravagant 

iThis play was reprinted twice in 1917, in A. H. Quinn's Representative 
American Plays and in a separate volume edited by Archibald Henderson, 
and again in 1918 in M. J. Moses' Representative Plays by American 
Dramatists, Vol. I. 



The Colonial Period 33 

blank verse, but it has in it some good qualities as a poetical 
tragedy and as an acting play. It shows unmistakable 
evidences of close imitation of some passages in Shakespeare's 
tragedies ; we must remember, however, that it was the work 
of a very young man and that the imitation of English works 
was a common custom of the day. In its purely artistic and 
literary appeal it is certainly a distinct advance upon the 
somber and terrifying poetry of the Puritan muse as rep- 
resented by Wigglesworth in "The Day of Doom." 

Benjamin Franklin. If Jonathan Edwards represents the 
highest attainment of the Puritan mind in the metaphysical 
and spiritual realm, Benjamin Franklin (i 706-1 790) repre- 
sents the highest success in the practical affairs of life. 
Though born and reared in Boston, Franklin spent the most 
productive period of his life in Philadelphia, and hence we 
may speak of him as the representative of the Middle 
Colonies. The larger part of his enduring literary produc- 
tions properly belongs to the Revolutionary period, but his 
early connection with journalism in the colonies, his publica- 
tion of Poor Richard's Almanac from 1732 to 1757 (for the 
years 1733 to 1758), his numerous essays, his papers on 
scientific and practical subjects, his htunorous and satiric 
sketches, his reports of his experiences before the English 
Parliament, all written before 1765, make it advisable to 
discuss this great man — printer, inventor, statesman, 
patriot, philosopher, philanthropist, and writer — in the 
Colonial, rather than in the Revolutionary period. 

His early life. The facts of Franklin's life are well known. 
The eleventh and youngest son of a soap boiler and tallow 
candler, he was born in Boston, January 17, 1706. He was 
sent to school during parts of two years and then appren- 
ticed to the printer's trade under his eldest brother, owner 
of one of the early American newspapers. The New Eng- 
land Courant. While Franklin had little formal education, 
he was a close student and a careful and tireless reader; 

3 



34 



History of American Literature 



and naturally in his trade of printer he soon acquired a good 
practical English education. He wrote some brief essays 




Courtesy of the Bostonian Society 
THE PRESS AND TYPE CASES USED BY BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

in imitation of Addison's Spectator papers, a volume of 
which he found in his father's library. During the night he 
slipped them under the door of his brother's printing shop, 
and was pleased to find that his compositions were deemed 



The Colonial Period 35 

worthy of publication and that they attracted considerable 
favorable comment when they appeared in print. Dis- 
satisfied with the treatment he was receiving at the hands 
of his brother, Franklin, having been accidentally freed from 
the bonds of his apprenticeship by a legal ruse of his brother's, 
ran away when he was seventeen years old, passed through 
New York, and landed in Philadelphia, where he found 
employment in his trade. Everyone knows the story of his 
ludicrous entry into Philadelphia, as it is described in the 
Autobiography. Franklin seems to take keen delight in 
telling how he walked down Market Street, his pockets 
stuffed with his extra shirt and stockings, a big puflfy roll 
under each arm, while he was eating on a third, thus provok- 
ing by his comical appearance the laughter of Miss Deborah 
Read, the young woman who afterward became his wife. 

His later attainments. By his industry and energy, Frank- 
lin prospered in his trade and presently attracted the atten- 
tion of Governor Keith, who promised him letters of credit 
and sent him to England to buy a printing outfit. The 
governor failed him, and Franklin found himself in London 
without money or credit. He managed to get work at his 
trade, and was thus enabled to make a study of the most 
advanced methods of printing as practiced in England. 
After eighteen months he returned to Philadelphia, bought 
The Pennsylvania Gazette, and began a publishing business 
on his own account. He soon rose to a position of influence 
and prominence in the colony. His almanacs, the first of 
which was printed in 1732 for the year 1733, contained, 
besides the regular information in such publications, a 
lot of useful and entertaining matter, including the quaint 
proverbs and humorous sayings of Richard Saunders, or 
"Poor Richard," the supposed author of the almanacs. 
The publications became exceedingly popular and profitable, 
as many as 10,000 copies being sold annually. Franklin's 
success as a publisher was now assured. Presently he 



36 



History of American Literature 



had accumulated for himself a very comfortable fortune, 
and he retired from active business to devote himself to 
public services of one kind or another. He projected many 
schemes for bettering the life of his city and the colonies 



Poor Richard, 1733. 



A N 



Almanack 



Foi the Year of Chrift 



733 



Being the Firfl afrer lEAPYEAR: 

jini main fifr thr C'taiim Yf Jrs 

By the Account of ihe E rt^'O Gtfki 7241 

By the Latin Cho'ch, whrn O cm Y 69J2 

By the Computation of IV IV J742 

By (he Roman Chronology }68z 

By the Jnoijb RabbicJ 5494 

IVhereiK is contained 
The Lonations, Eclipfcs, Judgment of 

the Weather, Spring Tid'S Planets Motions & 
mutual AfpeQ'., Sun 2n<1 Moon's Rifmg and Set- 
ting, Length of Days. Time of High Water, 
Falis, Courts, and obfcrwable Day» 
Fitted tQtheLarirudcol Forjv Degrees, 

and a Meridian of FivrHour* Wrll frorr- /enrfm. 
hut mav without fenfiMe Error ferveali the ad- 
jacent Places. e>'en from KrnvfcundlanJ ro Stuth- 
Carotma. 



By RlCHylRD S/fUNDERS, Fhilom. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

Printed and fold by B FRylNKLIN. at the New 

Printing Office near ihe Mai1<ct. 



TITLE PAGE OF FIRST ISSUE OF POOR RICHARD 

generally. He was especially interested in various educa- 
tional projects, and he is now revered as the founder of the 
Philadelphia Library, of the academy which eventually 
became the University of Pennsylvania, and of the American 
Philosophical Society. He very greatly improved the 
postal service of the city when he became postmaster of 



The Colonial Period 37 

Philadelphia, and later, when he was appointed post- 
master general, of the whole colony. He invented many 
useful devices, among them the Franklin stove and the 
lightning rod, and he refused to take out patents, preferring 
to give his inventions to the public without restrictions. 
In scientific investigations Franklin made notable advances, 
particularly in his electrical experiments, in which he demon- 
strated that lightning was but a manifestation of elec- 
tricity. He was regarded as one of the wisest investigators 
of his day, and the leading foreign nations vied with each 
other in awarding him distinguished honors for his scientific 
discoveries. 

His services to the government. His participation in the 
foreign and domestic politics of his country was so large 
that we can merely glance at his activities in this sphere. 
He was sent to England to represent the colony in several 
disputes that had arisen with the proprietors, and his success 
in clearing up these troubles led to his appointment on a 
commission to protest against the policy of the English 
government in enforcing the Stamp Act and other obnoxious 
laws. He remained in England for about eighteen years 
in all, and during this time he served well the interests 
of the colonies. While he made a profound impression upon 
the English government and succeeded for a time in pre- 
venting drastic action against the colonists, he was unable to 
secure permanent relief, and he finally returned to America 
to become an ardent supporter of the Revolution and a 
signer of the Declaration of Independence. Perhaps the 
best service he rendered to the cause was his successful 
mission to France to secure the aid of that country in our 
struggle against England. He remained in France for a 
number of years, representing later the new government 
at the French court, where he was by far the most 
admired and courted man in the diplomatic circle. Upon 
his return to America in 1785, he was chosen governor of 



38 



History of American Literature 



Pennsylvania, elected to the Constitutional Convention in 
1787, and honored in many other ways by his countrymen. 
He died February 12, 1790, one of the best-loved and most 
highly respected citizens of the new republic. Among 
our Revolutionary heroes he shares with Washington the 




From a painiing by Henry Bacon 
FRANKLIN IN HIS GARDEN 

love and gratitude of the nation, and doubtless, through 
the familiar proverbs of the almanacs and the widely read 
Autobiography, his personality is even better known than 
that of the "Father of his Country." 

His philosophy: The Almanacs. Franklin's philosophy of 
life has been sometimes condemned as entirely too prac- 
tical and utilitarian. There is no question but that there 
is too much emphasis on the material and too little on the 
spiritual in his view of life ; but we must remember that such 
a practical philosophy as Franklin preached from his pulpits 
of newspaper and almanac was needed to balance the 
extreme idealism of such men as Jonathan Edwards among 
the Puritans and John Woolman among the Quakers. It 



The Colonial Period 39 

was through the ahnanacs that Frankhn reached his largest 
audience, for his publications of this kind were well thumbed 
in practically every household of the colonies. The selec- 
tions of verse, witty sayings, amusing sketches, and bits of 
superstitious lore added something to the popularity of the 
almanacs, but it was the practical proverbs and utilitarian 
philosophy which made the deepest and most abiding impres- 
sion on the colonial mind. In the last of the almanacs, the 
one for 1758, Poor Richard gathered up the best of all the 
proverbs in a final discourse in the form of a report of 
"Father Abraham's Speech." It is said that this com- 
pendium of Poor Richard's sayings was by far the most 
widely read piece of colonial literature. It was translated 
into practically every modern foreign language; since its 
first publication it has been printed in more than four hun- 
dred editions. Under various titles the discourse was struck 
off on broadsheets and freely distributed among the poorer 
working classes to encourage thrift, industry, frugality, 
prudence, perseverance, and honesty. The following prov- 
erbs or "Sayings of Poor Richard" taken from "Father 
Abraham's Speech," though by no means all original, will 
illustrate the kind of maxims which Franklin was constantly 
repeating in his almanacs. 

1 . Be ashamed to catch yourself idle. 

2. Drive thy business, let not that drive thee. 

3. Light strokes fell great oaks. 

4. Three removes are as bad as a fire. 

5. He that by the plow would thrive 
Himself must either hold or drive. 

6. At a great pennyworth, pause awhile. 

7. Plow deep while sluggards sleep 

And you shall have corn to sell and to keep. 

8. A plowman on his legs is higher than a gentleman on his knees. 

9. If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow 

some; for he who goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing. 
10. Creditors are a superstitious sect, great observers of set days and 
times. 



40 History of American Literature 

11. It is hard for an empty bag to stand upright. 

12. Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other, 

and scarce in that. 

The ''Autobiography." Though Franklin was not primarily 
an author, for the best efforts of his life were given to busi- 
ness, diplomacy, statesmanship, and practical philanthropy, 
he succeeded in writing the one universally read classic of 
the two literary periods in which his life falls. The Auto- 
biography is a book which everyone, particularly every 
American, should read. It is full of practical wisdom, sound 
advice, and the revelation of a fascinating personality — all 
presented in an admirably lively, forceful, and simple prose 
style. The book is preeminently human and natural, and 
richly deserves the high rank it has attained. It is unques- 
tionably the one outstanding masterpiece of our early 
literature. Further analysis of or quotation from this 
''classic" is unnecessary, for every American boy and girl 
should read the entire book.^ 

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHIES 

SUITABLE FOR HIGH-SCHOOL LIBRARIES AND 

OUTSIDE READING 

General Reference Books for American Literature 

(Starred volumes are especially valuable for high-school libraries.) 

*S. L. Whitcomb, Chronological Outlines of American Literature; Mac- 
millan, N. Y., 1894. 

*Charles F. Richardson, American Literature; Putnam, N. Y., 1897. 

Barrett Wendell, A Literary History of America; Scribner, N. Y., 1901 . 

*W. P. Trent, A History of American Literature; Appleton, N. Y., 1904. 

*Theodore Stanton, editor, A Manual of American Literature; Putnam, 
N. Y., 1909. (This volume contains in greatly reduced form 
Moses Coit Tyler's four volumes on the history of Colonial and 
Revolutionary literature, together with chapters by various hands 
on the different classes of American writers of the nineteenth 
century. Valuable as a reference volume or handbook.) 

iSee the excellent illustrated school edition edited by George B. Alton, 
in the Canterbury Classics, Rand McNally & Co., Chicago. 



The Colonial Period 41 

*Cairns, a History of American Literature; Oxford University Press, 

N. Y., 1916. 
*Camhridge History of American Literature; 3 vols., Cambridge Press, 

Cambridge, England, and N. Y., 1917-1919. 
E. A. and G. L. Duyckinck, Cyclopaedia of America?t Literature, 

Embracing Personal and Critical Notices of Authors and Selections 

from Their Writings; 2 vols., Scribner, N. Y., 1856. 
*Stedman and Hutchinson, Library of American Literature; 11 vols., 

Benjamin, N. Y., 1888-90. 
Alderman and Others, Library of Southern Literature; 16 vols., Martin 

and Hoyt, Atlanta, 1907-19 13. 
*A. B. Hart, American History Told by Contemporaries; 4 vols., Mac- 

millan, N. Y., 1898. (This is a valuable reference book both for 

history and for literature classes.) 
Old South Leaflets; Directors of Old South Meeting House, Boston, 

various dates. (The leaflets have been bound in six or more 

volumes, and in this form they afford much good miscellaneous 

source reading in American history and literature.) 

Special Reference Books for Colonial Literature 1 

I. History of Literature and Selections 

*Tyler, History of American Literature, Colonial Period, 1617-176$; 

2 vols., Putnam, N. Y., 1897. (Also Student's Edition in one 

volume, 1909.) 
Trent and Wells, Colonial Prose and Poetry; 3 vols., Crowell, N. Y., 

1901. 
*Cairns, Selections from Early American Writers, 1607-1800; Mac- 

millan, N. Y., 1909. (This is the best single volume reference 

book on the Colonial and Revolutionary Periods. It contains 

brief biographical sketches and abundant selections for high-school 

or college classes.) 

Stedman and Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, Vols. I 
and II. 

Hart, American History Told by Contemporaries, Vols. I and II. 

2. Later Poetry Dealing with Colonial Times 

Longfellow, 'The Skeleton in Armor," "Hiawatha," "The Court- 
ship of Miles Standish," "Evangeline," etc. 



iThe important works named in the body of the text are not listed here. 



42 History oj American Literature 

ScoLLARD, "The First Thanksgiving." 

Holmes. "The Pilgrim's Vision," "On Lending a Punch Bowl," "Song 

for the Centennial Celebration of Harvard," "The Deacon's 

Masterpiece," "The Broomstick Train; or, The Return of the 

Witches," etc. 
English, "The Burning of Jamestown." 
Whittier, "The Preacher." 
Thackeray, "Pocahontas." 
Lanier, "Psalm of the West." 
(See Burton E. Stevenson's Poems of American History, for fuller list of 

poems dealing with the Colonial Period.) 



3. Later Fiction Dealing with Colonial Times 

Irving, Knickerbocker' s History of New York (humorous), "Rip Van 
Winkle," etc. 

Cooper, The Leather-Stocking Tales, — The Pioneers, The Last of the 
Mohicans, The Prairie, The Pathfinder, The Deerslayer (some of 
these may be classed in Revolutionary times), — The Wept of Wish- 
Ton- Wish (War of King Philip of Pokanoket) , The Red Skins, The 
Red Rover. 

SiMMS, The Yemassee: A Romance of Carolina. 

CoOke, My Lady Pocahontas, Fairfax. 

Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, Grandfather' s Chair, Mosses from an 
Old Manse, and Twice-Told Tales (especially "The Gray Champion," 
"The Gentle Boy," "The Maypole of Merry Mount," and "Legends 
of the Province House," including "Howe's Masquerade," "Edward 
Randolph's Portrait," "Lady Eleanore's Mantle," "Old Esther 
Dudley," etc.) 

Paulding, The Dutchman' s Fireside. 

Stimson, King Noanett: A Story of the Devon Settlers in Old Virginia 
and Massachusetts Bay. 

Holland, The Bay Path; A Tale of New England Colonial Life. 

Eggleston, Pocahontas and Powhatan. 

Austin, Standish of Standish, Betty Alden, etc. 

Barr, A Bow of Orange Ribbon (Dutch New York), Black Shilling 

(Salem witchcraft). 
Johnston, To Have and To Hold, Prisoners of Hope, Audrey, etc. 



The Colonial Period 43 

Sedgwick, Hope Leslie; or, Early Times in Massachusetts, etc. , 

4. Essays and Historical Works Dealing with Colonial Times 
Emerson, "Historical Discourse on the Second Centennial of the 

Incorporation of the Town of Concord." 
Lowell, "New England Two Centuries Ago," and "Witchcraft" (in 

Literary Essays, Vol. II). 
Lodge, English Colonies in America. 
Doyle, English Colonies in America (3 vols.). 
Drake, The Making of New England, The Making of Virginia, 

The Middle Colonies. 
FiSKE, Old Virginia and Her Neighbors, The Beginnings of New England, 

The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America. 
Earle, Colonial Days in Old New York, Costume of Colonial Times, 

Customs and Fashions in Old New England. 
Parkman, Historical Works. (These give a trustworthy and entertaining 

account of the struggle for supremacy in America, portraying 

particularly the French settlements and Indian life in connection. 

See the discussion of Parkman on p. 00.) 



II. THE REVOLUTIONARY AND FORMATIVE 
PERIOD, 1 765-1800 

Preliminary Statement 

The Revolutionary period. Strictly speaking, the Revo- 
lution extends from the beginning of hostilities in 1775 to 
the conclusion of peace in 1782 ; but for a survey of Revolu- 
tionary literature it is necessary, in order to get an adequate 
conception of the political, patriotic, and general literary 
productions incident to the period, to include the years 
immediately preceding and immediately following the actual 
conflict. We have therefore chosen the year of the Stamp 
Act Congress, 1765, which marks the first fonnal protest by 
the colonies against the mother country, and the year 1800, 
marking the turn of the century and the election of Thomas 
Jefferson, third president of the United States, as the inclu- 
sive dates of the Revolutionary and Formative period of 
our literature. 

General characteristics. The literature of these tumul- 
tuous and significant years in the history of our nation is 
naturally colored by the important activities of the times, 
and hence is largely controversial in nature, the first part 
of the period presenting the controversy between the colonies 
and the English government, or the Whigs and the Tories; 
and the second part of the period showing the controversy 
resulting from the conflicting interests of the various colonies, 
which finally crystalized in the two opposing political 
parties that arose out of the discussion of the nature and 
limitations of the newly formed constitutional govern- 
ment. Hence this is the period par excellence of the orator 
and the statesman. Patriotic speeches, state papers, gov- 
ernmental essays, and political pamphlets of every kind 
abound and make up the distinctive literature of the period. 

[44] 



The Revolutionary Period 45 

Poetry becomes more prominent than it was in the colonial 
period, but still takes a minor position, being largely satirical 
or national and patriotic in tendency, and strongly colored 
by the prevailing political thought of the times. Very 
little purely artistic literature of any kind was produced; 
native drama was in its infancy; not until the very end 
of the period did imaginative poetry and fiction emerge, 
and even then only two names stand out with any distinct 
prominence or promise — namely, Philip Freneau in poetry 
and Charles Brockden Brown in prose fiction. Practically 
all the important writers of the period are satirists, political 
essayists, publicists, and statesmen. While this contro- 
versial and political literature of Revolutionary times is 
extremely valuable as a basis of historical interpretation, 
and while some of it, by virtue of the sincere passion, patri- 
otic fervor, and moral earnestness which gave it birth, 
approaches the borders of art, yet it is not purely artistic 
literature, and the high-school student may pass rapidly 
over this period of our literary history, so far as making a 
minute study of its products is concerned. 

Historical Background 

Growth of the opposition to British rule. To enable one 
to gain a satisfactory comprehension of the literature of 
the Revolutionary period, a brief resume of the events lead- 
ing toward a firmer union of the various colonies will be 
essential. Though as early as 1760 some distinct mutter- 
ings were heard, it was not until 1765 that the condemnation 
of England's governmental policies became open and 
formidable. About this time the agitation concerning the 
method by which the colonies should be governed crystalized 
itself in the colonial mind in the familiar phrase "no taxation 
without representation." The Navigation Acts, Acts of 
Trade, and other forms of restrictive legislation aimed at 



46 History oj American Literature 

the colonies were resisted by open violation and smuggling 
operations. The British government issued Writs of 
Assistance in 1761, giving authority to customs officials to 
search for smuggled goods in any suspected place. This 
aroused immense indignation in the colonies.^ The Stamp 
Act was passed in 1765, and in October of that year 
the different colonies sent representatives to New York 
to consider the situation and make a formal protest. 
This convention was known as the Stamp Act Con- 
gress. It drew up a "Declaration of Rights and 
Grievances of the Colonists," and sent it, along with 
a petition for relief, to the English government. The 
Stamp Act was repealed, but Parliament declared its right 
to tax the colonies, and passed a new tariff or excise tax 
measure almost immediately. This measure brought forth 
an increasing storm of protest from the colonists, and as a 
compromise all the duties imposed, except that on tea, were 
repealed. The British government sent troops to Massa- 
chusetts to enforce its authority, and in 1770 open violence 
between the citizens and the soldiers resulted in the death 
of five colonists. The English authorities shortly afterward 
withdrew the troops from Boston, where the massacre 
occurred, and thus avoided further immediate trouble. 
Committees of Correspondence between the different 
colonial governments were appointed, and under the leader- 
ship of such men as Samuel Adams in Massachusetts and 
Patrick Henry in Virginia the spirit of united resistance 
against the mother country was kept alive. The first 
Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in 1774. In 
1775 the famous Boston Tea Party took place, and a con- 
flict of arms between the colonists and the British soldiers 
became at once imminent. Hostilities began almost imme- 
diately, the celebrated fights at Concord and Lexington 
taking place on April 19, 1775. The Second Continental 

iSee the account of Otis's speech, p. 49. 



The Revolutionary Period 47 

Congress convened at Philadelphia in 1775, and on July 4, 
1776, independence was declared. The war was brought to 
a successful conclusion with the defeat of Cornwallis in 
1 78 1, and with the treaty of peace which followed in 1782, 
England recognized the complete independence of the thir- 
teen American Colonies. 

Formation of the Union. Then came the period of the 
formation of the new government. The Continental Con- 
gress was acknowledged to be but a makeshift to meet the 
needs of the colonists during the war. The Articles of Con- 
federation under which Congress operated were but a loosely 
defined set of agreements, with no means of enforcement 
except through the acquiescence and voluntary support of 
the various colonies. So long as the war lasted, the spirit 
of mutual protection banded the colonies together; and the 
final success of the Revolution undoubtedly gave a strong 
impetus toward the continuation of centralized power in 
the federal government. But naturally differences of opin- 
ion and jealousies between the different governments arose, 
and the confederation was seriously threatened. From 1783 
to 1788 the life of the new government hung in the balance. 
Under the influence of Washington, Hamilton, Samuel 
Adams, and others, agitation for a convention began, and 
in 1787 the Federal Constitutional Convention assembled 
in Philadelphia, The many differences of opinion were 
finally settled, and the Constitution was framed upon the 
tri-partite plan of executive, legislative, and judiciary func- 
tions. The instrument was submitted to the states for 
ratification in the latter part of 1787, and during the next 
year occurred the great popular discussion of the merits 
and defects of the new scheme of federal government. The 
Constitution was finally adopted by eleven states, and 
Washington was the unanimous choice for the first presi- 
dent. During the following years there gradually sprang 
up two opposing parties, led respectively by Alexander 



48 History oj American Literature 

Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. "The final form taken 
by these two parties depended much upon the character of 
their leaders. Hamilton, a man of great personal force 
and of strong aristocratic feeling, represented the principle 
of authority, of government framed and administered by a 
select few for the benefit of their fellows. Jefferson, an 
advocate of popular government extended to a point never 
before reached, declared that his party was made up of 
those 'who identified themselves with the people, have confi- 
dence in them, cherisTi and consider them as the most 
honest and safe, although not the most wise, depositary of 
the public interest.' "^ 

An estimate of Revolutionary literature. Upon and around 
these historical facts revolves the great mass of our contro- 
versial literature which sprang up during this period. As 
Professor Moses Coit Tyler says: "The literature of our 
Revolution has everywhere the combative note, its habitual 
method is argumentative, persuasive, appealing, rasping, 
retaliatory; the very brain seems to be in armor; his wit is 
in the gladiator's attitude of offense and defense. It is a 
literature indulging itself in grimaces, in mockery, in scowls; 
a literature accented by earnest gestures meant to convince 
the people, or by fierce blows meant to smite them down. 
In this literature we must not expect to find art used for 
art's sake."^ 

The Orators 

Nature of oratory. Among the chief orators who sup- 
ported the cause of the colonists were James Otis (1725- 
1783), Samuel Adams (1722-1803), and John Adams (1735- 
1826), all of Massachusetts, and Patrick Henry (173 6- 1799) 
of Virginia. Of these James Otis and Patrick Henry are 

. ^A. B. Hart, Formation of the Union, p. 155. 

2 Moses Coit Tyler, Literary History of the American Revolution, 1763- 
1783, Vol. I, p. 6. 



The Revolutionary Period 49 

typical Revolutionary orators. Oratory is usually bom 
of an occasion, and when the occasion has passed the oration 
becomes largely a mere memory to those who heard the 
spoken words. Hence there is little literary permanency 
in the popular oratory born of a moment and uttered under 
the stress of fiery emotion. The reputation of the orator 
survives, but his extemporaneous speeches, delivered under 
the excitement and inspiration of the occasion, usually pass 
away with the breath which gives them utterance. This 
is precisely what happened in the case of Otis, and it is 
almost precisely what happened in the case of Henry's 
passionate orations. 

James Otis. The most famous of Otis's speeches is the 
one delivered in 1761 at Boston in opposition to the Writs 
of Assistance or warrants of search in private homes for 
smuggled goods. No authentic reproduction has come down 
to us, but John Adams, who heard the speech, made notes 
of it, and in his later reminiscences he spoke of Otis on this 
occasion as a flame of fire, and the hour of the delivery of 
the speech as the real birth hour of American independence. 
In the course of his argument Otis declared that the Navi- 
gation Acts were "a taxation law made by a foreign legis- 
lature without our consent," and this phrase in a slightly 
changed form became the chief slogan of the Revolutionary 
agitators. Otis was advocate-general of the colony, but 
he gave up this lucrative position under the crown rather 
than support the nefarious Writs of Assistance. He threw 
himself wholly into the cause of the colonists in their resist- 
ance to these oppressive laws and wrote several pamphlets 
distinguished by calmness and judicial poise quite in con- 
trast with the passionate eloquence in his speeches; among 
them is the sound and conservative argument called 
"The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved" 
(1764). In a personal affray with some of his political 
enemies, Otis suffered injuries from which he later lost his 
4 



50 History of American Literature 

mind and died, and thus he may be counted among the very 
earliest martyrs to the cause of American Hberty and 
independence. 

Patrick Henry: his "Speech on Liberty." Patrick Henry 
(i 736-1 799) was a typical Southern statesman, bom of good 
family and representing the conservative and independent 
and at the same time passionate ideals of Virginia. He was 
elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1765, and here 
he first won fame in the discussion of the Stamp Act by 
making the famous comparison which brought out the cry of 
"Treason! Treason!" from the loyalist members. "Caesar 
had his Brutus ; Charles the First had his Cromwell ; and George 
the Third," — here the speaker was interrupted, but he calmly 
concluded in the midst of the cries of "Treason," — "may 
profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most 
of it." In 1775 he made another famous speech, which has 
come down to us through the report given by William Wirt, 
himself an excellent orator and prose writer of the early 
nineteenth century. How much of Henry's "Speech on 
Liberty" is due to Wirt's own composition from his memory 
of the speech, it is now impossible to tell; but there is no 
question of the masterly style, ardent passion, and moving 
power exhibited in the famous oration now made almost uni- 
versally familiar by innumerable declamatory repetitions. 
It begins, "Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge 
in the illusions of hope," and ends with the magnificent 
peroration, 

It is vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, "peace, 
peace!" — but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The 
next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash 
of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why 
stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would 
they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the 
price of chains and slavery! Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not 
what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me 
death ! 



The Revolutionary Period 51 

Henry's later speeches. In the discussions which followed 
the submitting of the Constitution to the several colonies 
for ratification, Henry opposed the adoption of the new 
form of federal government. He feared the results of too 
much concentration or centralization of power. He even 
went so far as to suggest that under the proposed plan the 
president might easily make himself king, and the colonies 
would again be subjected to the yoke of a monarchical form 
of government. In spite of Henry's opposition, however, 
Virginia finally adopted the Constitution. The later 
speeches of the great orator were more authentically recorded 
than the earlier famous one reported by Wirt, for they were 
taken down in shorthand, with perhaps a few verbal inaccu- 
racies, as they were delivered in the Virginia Convention. 
The style shows all the powerful appeal of the traditional 
orator — climactic periods, exclamatory sentences, rhetorical 
questions, and passionate outbursts — but the quality is 
more purely argumentative and less perfervid than the 
highly emotional style of the "Speech on Liberty." All in 
all we may rank Patrick Henry as the most illustrious of our 
Revolutionary orators. 

Political Writers 

Samuel Adams. Samuel Adams (i 722-1803) and his 
kinsman John Adams have been named among the orators, 
but their influence was probably greater as political writers 
than as speakers. Samuel Adams has been singled out 
by Englishmen as the man who was the greatest obstacle 
in the way of a peaceful adjustment between England and 
the colonies. He was an untiring enemy of compromise, 
and he wrote perhaps more — though he signed his name to 
very little of what he published — than any of the early 
agitators. He prepared many reports, memorials, articles 
for the press, and state papers, all of which show his clear 



52 History of American Literature 

and convincing style as a controversial writer. He directed 
the work of the Committee of Correspondence for Massa- 
chusetts, and became so vigorously aggressive in his opposi- 
tion to England that he was not included in the general 
pardon which that country declared in 1775, a fact of which 
he was exceedingly proud. Samuel Adams was a skilful 
politician, a successful party manipulator, and a powerful 
political journalist, and he has been adjudged by 
historians to be the most influential of the Revolutionary 
agitators. 

John Adams. John Adams (173 5-1 8 2 6), the cousin of 
Samuel Adams, was perhaps a more profound thinker and 
a more careful writer than his kinsman, and he eventually 
received higher political regard, being elected president in 
1796 to succeed Washington; but his popular influence was 
not nearly so great as that of the elder Adams. He was what 
we may call a constitutional lawyer, basing his orations and 
pamphlets on the profound underlying principles of govern- 
ment rather than upon the principle of expediency and popu- 
lar appeal. Though his writings command respect and 
admiration, the strong legal and logical bent of his mind 
robs them of much of that human element which is essential 
to literature. 

Tory pamphleteers. It must not be assumed that all the 
good controversial writing was on one side of the questions 
at issue. There were some excellent loyalist pamphleteers, 
among them being Samuel Seabury (1729-1796), an Epis- 
copal minister, later consecrated in Connecticut as the first 
bishop of the American Episcopal Church, the author of 
a number of attractive letters written under the pen-name 
of "A Westchester Farmer"; Joseph Galloway (1729-1803), 
a native of Maryland who moved to Philadelphia to practice 
law and there wrote a conservative pamphlet under the title 
of "Examination of the Mutual Claims of Great Britain and 
the Colonies"; and Daniel Leonard (i 740-1829), a graduate 



The Revolutionary Period 53 

of Harvard College and a Boston lawyer, author of strong 
loyalist newspaper articles signed " Massachusettsensis. " 

John Dickinson. Along with these writers, though not 
of them, should be mentioned John Dickinson (1732-1808), 
of Philadelphia, author of many excellent conservative 
articles and pamphlets. The best known of his writings is 
a series of newspaper articles called "Letters from a Penn- 
sylvania Farmer to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies" 
(1767-68). In these articles he tried to show the merits of 
both sides of the controversy and thus lead to a friendly 
settlement of the difficulties confronting the people. Pro- 
fessor Tyler says, "No other serious political essays of the 
Revolution equalled the ' Farmer's Letters ' in literary merit, 
including in that term the merit of substance as well as of 
form."i These letters were published in practically all of the 
newspapers of the colonies and attracted a great deal of 
attention ; they were also widely circulated in Europe, where 
they received serious consideration. When the war broke 
out, Dickinson became a staunch supporter of the colonial 
cause. He was also the author of the stilted but at one time 
popular "Song for American Liberty." 

Alexander Hamilton. When he was a boy of seventeen 
studying at King's College (now Columbia University) in 
New York City, Alexander Hamilton (17 57-1 804) began his 
career as a political writer by his successful answers to the 
letters of "A Westchester Farmer "^ in a series called "The 
Farmer Refuted." Hamilton was born in the West Indies 
and was at an early age thrown on his own resources. He 
entered business, but he showed such precocious literary 
abilities that he was urged by admiring friends to go to New 
York to seek an education. He entered heartily into the 
pre-Revolutionary agitation as orator, pamphleteer, and 

1 Moses Coit Tyler, Literary History of the American Revolution, 1763- 
1783, Vol. I, p. 236. 

2 See above "Tory Pamphleteers." 



54 History oj American Literature 

statesman, and later became a powerful force in the forma- 
tion and adoption of the Constitution and in the actual 
management of the government in the various important 
public offices which he held. 

''The Federalist." The greatest service that Hamilton 
rendered to the new government was through a series of 
papers planned by him and written largely by him and James 
Madison, and now known as The Federalist. It was in 
1787-88 that these papers first appeared in newspapers, but 
they were afterward collected into a volume, and this contro- 
versial document, written to explain and defend the new 
constitution, has become an authoritative statement of 
the nature and principles of constitutional government. 
The style of the work is restrained and dignified, striking in 
its simplicity and directness, and overwhelmingly convincing 
in its clearness and logical force. So uniform and decisive 
is the style that it is difficult to determine the authorship 
of the letters without direct outside information. John Jay 
wrote a few numbers, but to Hamilton and Madison belongs 
the credit of composing the great majority of the papers; 
and to Hamilton must be given the greater praise, because 
he conceived the plan and wrote the first, and at least three- 
fifths of the whole number, of the papers. 

Thomas Jefferson. Upon Thomas Jefferson's tomb at 
Monticello, his home near Charlottesville, Virginia, are 
inscribed the following words, composed by himself: 

HERE LIES BURIED THOMAS JEFFERSON, AUTHOR OF THE 
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, OF THE STATUTE OF 
VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. AND FATHER OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA. 

These three items may be summarized in the single idea 
of human liberty; for the first represents political liberty, 
the second religious liberty, and the third intellectual 




ALEXANDER HAMILTON 



56 History of American Literature 

liberty. Jefferson (i 743-1826), was not primarily nor 
intentionally an author in the restricted sense of that term, 
but he was well prepared to become one both by temper- 
ament and by training. In another age and country he 
might have become a great romantic writer as easily 
as he did become a great idealist in politics in the age 
and land in which he happened to live. Bom in Albermarle 
County in 1743 and educated in the best schools of 
his day under the classical ideals, he naturally turned 
to politics as a career in the timiultuous times when 
the colonies were arrayed against foreign domination 
in the conduct of their local governments. He was elected 
to the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1769, and from 
this time on to the end of his life he devoted himself to the 
service of his country in one way or another. It is useless 
to review his public career, for the main items are known to 
all who read the elemental facts of our national history. 
It is to his writings and cultural interests that we must 
devote our attention. 

Jefferson's state papers: "The Declaration of Independence." 
The first important state paper of Jefferson's which had any 
direct influence on the course of events was his "Instructions 
to the Virginia Delegates to the Congress of 17 74-" This 
was reprinted and sent abroad under the title "A Summary 
View of the Rights of America," and it is said that in this 
form it suggested to Edmund Burke some of the arguments 
he used in his great speech on " Conciliation with the Ameri- 
can Colonies." The two other state papers by Jefferson 
which should not be omitted from any survey of our political 
classics are "The Declaration of Independence," composed 
in 1776, and the "First Inaugural Address," delivered in 
1 80 1 when he became third president of the United States. 
The last of these is a fine example of the formal political 
address, but it is to the first that we must give especial 
attention. The fact that Jefferson, one of the youngest 




THOMAS JEFFERSON 



S8 History of American Literature 

men in the convention, should have been selected to draft 
the Declaration of Independence is sufficient proof of the 
confidence which his contemporaries had in his literary 
abilities, and his success in the task is attested by the uni- 
versal esteem in which that document is still held, not only 
for its historical value as a landmark in the establishment of 
our nation, but for its excellent literary form. Jefferson 
succeeded in crystalizing in this great state paper the 
thought and emotion of a whole people, and at the same time 
he put the stamp of his own personality upon the instrument. 
The phraseology of the Declaration is, of course, partially 
borrowed from similar earlier declarations or bills of rights, 
and it is well known that there were numerous changes and 
corrections made when the paper was subjected to the revi- 
sion of the convention. But the genius and spirit of the 
whole, the literary form and the passion which underlie it, 
belong to Jefferson, and to him we may unhesitatingly 
ascribe the authorship of the noblest political classic of our 
nation. The style is dignified and sonorous and unmis- 
takably clear and decisive, but at times somewhat stilted 
in its diction, and somewhat formal in its excessive paral- 
lelism. The opening paragraph illustrates the quality of 
the style at its best. 

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one 
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with 
another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate 
and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God 
-entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that 
they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. 

His Notes on Virginia and his Autobiography. Most of 
the material in the ten large volumes of Jefferson's collected 
works consists of letters and state papers. There are 
several works, however, which ri.se to the importance of 
formal volumes. The Notes on Virginia (1784), prepared 



The Revolutionary Period 59 

in response to a request from the French government, is 
perhaps Jefferson's most ambitious book. It is carefully 
written and is full of interesting facts, figures, and descrip- 
tions of the country and the customs of those early days, 
but it is not to be classed as literature in the restricted 
sense. Jefferson's Autobiography, too, written after he had 
retired from active public life and was devoting himself to 
his estate, Monticello, and to fostering the growth of the 
University of Virginia at Charlottesville, is chiefly valuable 
as a storehouse of information concerning the public events 
in which the great commoner took part. But even if Jeffer- 
son's work as a whole is not primarily literary, there is in 
his personality a certain cultural richness which lends 
importance to him as a literary figure. He wrote an Anglo- 
Saxon grammar; he was a great reader; he was interested 
in music and painting; and he was especially devoted to 
architecture, as is evidenced by the charming beauty of his 
own home and by the elaborate drawings which he prepared 
in his scheme for the buildings of the University of Virgina. 
In fact, it is largely due to the idealism and culture of its 
aspiring and art-loving patron that this university today 
enjoys the distinction of a unique cultural atmosphere. 

George Washington: "The Farewell Address." George 
Washington (173 2-1 799) was more of a soldier and a states- 
man than a writer or orator, but on certain impressive 
occasions in his life he delivered addresses which rise to the 
plane of noble political literature. The first of these public 
utterances which should be remembered is his brief "Address 
Delivered upon Surrendering to Congress his Commission 
as Commander in Chief of the Revolutionary Army" (1783) ; 
and another is the universally esteemed "Farewell Address 
to the American People" (1796). The last is in reality a 
state paper in the form of a dignified personal address by 
the great president to his friends and fellow-citizens. It 
comes as a fitting climax to Washington's public career. At 



6o History of American Literature 

the end of his first term as president (1792) he asked James 
Madison to prepare for him a draft of a farewell address to 
the people, but when he accepted the nomination for a 
second term he put off the final preparation of the address 
until 1796. He then called Alexander Hamilton into con- 
sultation and prepared the great "Farewell Address." It 
is customary for our chief executives to get advice and 
suggestions from their cabinet officers in the preparation 
of practically all important state papers; hence there is 
no reason for depriving Washington of due credit for the 
composition of the "Farewell Address. " The quiet dignity, 
lofty ideals, and inherent modesty of expression in the docu- 
ment are characteristic of the great personality who signed 
it. In the "Farewell Address" Washington strongly advo- 
cated the doctrine of the isolation of the American republic 
from European politics. In particular he warned the 
young nation to avoid permanent alliances with European 
governments.^ It is worth while to note, in passing, that 
we have entirely outgrown this policy, as is clearly evidenced 
by the prominent part America has played in the great 
World War. 

Thomas Paine: "Common Sense" and "The Crisis." 
Among the essayists and journalists who took part in the 
agitation for American independence, Thomas Paine (1737- 
1809) deserves to be remembered as one of the most influen- 
tial and, from a literary point of view, one of the best. A 
native of England, in 1774 he came to America near middle 
life, bearing a letter of recommendation from Benjamin 
Franklin. He secured journalistic employment in Phila- 
delphia and at once plunged into the agitation for complete 
independence by writing his powerful pamphlet called 
"Common Sense" (1776). Tyler designates it "the first 



iThomas Jefferson, in his "First Inaugural Address," reiterated this 
doctrine in the familiar phrase, "peace, commerce, and honest friendship 
with all nations, entangling alliances with none." 



62 History of American Literature 

open and unqualified argument in championship of the 
doctrine of American independence." It took the public 
by storm. Every one was asking who could be the author 
of this impressive and bold pamphlet. Some attributed it 
to Samuel Adams and some to Benjamin Franklin. Paine 
kept his identity concealed, for it might have cost him his 
life to have acknowledged the authorship of this bold appeal 
to the colonists. He accepted employment in some clerical 
capacity in the army, and in this connection, soon after the 
appearance of his first pamphlet, he projected a series of 
articles under the general title of "The Crisis," the numbers 
to appear whenever he could bring them out. The first 
number, published in 1776, opened with the now familiar 
sentence, "These are the times that try men's souls." The 
first paragraph continues in the following strain, a passage 
worth repeating in any period of national crisis: 

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and 
the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his 
country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of 
man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered, yet we 
have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more 
glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too 
lightly: It is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven 
knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be 
strange indeed, if so celestial an article as freedom should not be 
highly rated. 

This is good, strong prose. The steady flow of the language 
and the nervous energy of the thought give the style a 
vitality and piquancy that make it at once attractive and 
convincing. There is no subtlety, no subterfuge, but a 
frank and direct, if somewhat rhetorical, appeal to the 
common sense of all readers. There is no doubt that at the 
critical time when they were put forth, Paine's pamphlets, 
as Washington himself acknowledged, were of great value 
in nerving the patriots to fight on against the terrible 



The Revolutionary Period 65 

odds which confronted them. There were sixteen numbers 
of "The Crisis" from 1776 to 1783, and together they make 
up a valuable contribution to our political literature. 

Paine' s later works: " The Rights of Man" and " The Age 
of Reason." In his later life Paine lost much of the prestige 
which his Revolutionary pamphlets had won for him in this 
country. He went to England and published a sharp reply 
to Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution, calling it 
The Rights of Man (1791). Then he slipped away to France, 
as if to avoid the storm which the publication of his reply 
raised in England. In France he mingled freely with the 
revolutionists in the terrible days of bloodshed and destruc- 
tion, and was himself imprisoned and sentenced to be 
executed. While in prison he wrote The Age of Reason 
(1794), an attack on the Bible and the Christian religion, 
and thus brought on himself the opprobrium which has 
followed him to this day. After his release from prison he 
returned to America, where he died in 1809. Unfortunately 
Paine is more frequently referred to as an enemy of Christi- 
anity than as a patriot. He was undoubtedly a sincere 
lover of liberty, and we should give him full credit for the 
bold fight he made for our own independence and for human 
rights in general. 

St. John de Crevecoeur. One more prose work deserves 
mention here, — namely, "The Letters from an American 
Farmer" (1782) by Hector St. John de Crevecoeur (1731- 
18 13). Bom of a noble family in Normandy, Crevecoeur 
was educated in England, from his sixteenth to his twenty- 
third year, when he removed to America to engage in farm- 
ing in New England and later in Pennsylvania. His 
"Letters from an American Farmer" represents an entirely 
different type of prose from the pamphlets we have been 
considering. Crevecoeur had no special plea to make either 
for religious or political liberty or to encourage immigrants 
to the colonies. What he attempted to do was to give a 



64 History of American Literature 

pleasing literary portrayal of rviral life and scenes in America. 
There is an idyllic simplicity and charm in his treatment of 
the natural beauties of American scenery and of the simple 
pastoral life of the American farmer. His interpretation is 
that of a pleased and interested observer rather than that 
of an advocate or partisan. From an esthetic and literary 
point of view Crevecoeur's book is superior to any other 
prose volume of its kind written in America during the 
eighteenth century. In these more stirring years of the 
twentieth century we may read with peculiar interest 
Crevecoeur's definition of an American and his prophecy 
of the future greatness of the American people. 

What, then, is the American, this new man? He is neither an 
European, nor the descendent of an European: Hence that strange 
mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country. I could 
point out to you a family whose grandfather was an Englishman, 
whose wife was Dutch, whose son married a French woman, and whose 
present four sons have now four wives of different nations. He is an 
American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and 
manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, 
the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. He becomes 
an American by being received in the broad lap of our great "alma 
mater." Here individuals of all nations are melted^ into a new race of 
men, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in 
the world. Americans are the western pilgrims, who are carrying 
along with them that great mass of arts, sciences, vigor, and industry, 
which began long since in the east. They will finish the great circle. 
The Americans were once scattered all over Europe. Here they are 
incorjjorated into one of the finest systems of population which has 
ever appeared, and which will hereafter become distinct by the power 
of the different climates they inhabit. The American ought therefore to 
love his country much better than that wherein either he or his fore- 
fathers were born. Here the rewards of his industry follow, with equal 
steps, the progress of his labor. His labor is founded on the basis of 
nature — self-interest: Can it want a stronger allurement? Wives and 
children, who before in vain demanded of him a morsel of bread, now, 



^This is doubtless the first use^of the familiar metaphor of America as 
the melting pot of the nations. 




INDEPENDENCE HALL AS SEEN FROM INDEPENDENCE SQUARE 
5 



66 History of American Literature 

fat and frolicsome, gladly help their father to clear those fields 
whence exuberant crops are to arise, to feed and to clothe them all, 
without any part being claimed either by , a despotic prince, a rich 
abbot, or a mighty lord. Here religion demands but little of him, — 
a small voluntary salary to the minister, and gratitude to God: Can 
he refuse these? The American is a new man, who acts upon new 
principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form new opin- 
ions. From involuntary idleness, servile dependence, penury, and 
useless labor, he has passed to toils of a very different nature, rewarded 
by ample subsistence. This is an American. 



The Poetry 

Revolutionary ballads. The poetry of the Revolutionary 
period rises above mediocrity. There were a number of 
ballads and patriotic songs which were popular in their 
day, and served well their purpose of amusing and cheering 
our ancestors, but hardly one of them is worthy of a perma- 
nent place in our literature. "The Song of American 
Liberty" by John Dickinson has already been mentioned. 
"Yankee Doodle," or "The Yankee's Return from Camp," 
originally written by Edward Bangs, a Harvard student, 
had a typical experience in its transitions, being sung 
in several varied versions to the delight of citizens and sol- 
diers during the hard struggle for independence. As a tune 
and as a popular ballad it still retains its hold on the public. 
The ballad, to which many additional stanzas have been 
added from time to time, begins as follows: 

Father and I went down to camp 

Along with Captain Gooding 
And there we see the men and boys 

As thick as hasty pudding. 

(chorus) 
Yankee Doodle, keep it up, 

Yankee Doodle, dandy, 
Mind the music and the step, 

And with the girls be handy. 



The Revolutionary Period 67 

Another typical ballad in the meter of "Yankee Doodle," 
literally bubbling over with satisfaction and delight at the 
discomfiture of the British general, the Earl of Comwallis, 
is called "The Dance," and begins, 

Cornwallis led a country dance, 

The like was never seen, sir. 
Much retrograde and much advance, 

And all with General Greene, sir. 

They rambled up and rambled down, 
Joined hands and off they run, sir, 
Our General Greene to Charlestown, 
* The earl to Wilmington, sir. 

The ballad of "Nathan Hale," or "Hale in the Bush," is a 
sort of refined or dressed up literary ballad, more dignified 
and self-conscious, hence less truly a popular ballad. It 
relates in a remarkably stimulating strain the capture and 
execution of the Revolutionary hero named in the title. 

The breezes went steadily through the tall pines, 
A-saying "oh! hu-ush!" a-saying "oh! hu-ush!" 

As stilly stole by a bold legion of horse. 
For Hale in the bush, for Hale in the bush. 

"Keep still!" said the thrush as she nestled her young. 
In a nest by the road; in a nest by the road. 

"For the tyrants are near, and with them appear 
What bodes us no good, what bodes us no good."i 

Francis Hopkinson: "The Battle of the Kegs." Francis 
Hopkinson (1737-1791) of Philadelphia, signer of the 
Declaration of Independence from New Jersey and holder 
of important political offices in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, 
among them the United States district judgeship for Penn- 
sylvania, was the author of numerous satiric trifles and 
extended political allegories which brought him wide popu- 
larity. His satirical ballad, "The Battle of the Kegs," 

iFor excellent complete selections of this type of popular verse, see 
Boynton's American Poetry or Cairns's Early American Writers. 



68 History oj American Literature 

is still delightful reading. It was written to satirize the 
British troops who, when they discovered certain "infernal 
machines" in the form of kegs sent down the river by the 
patriots to annoy the British ships at Philadelphia, bravely 
began to fire on every floating object they saw in the river. 

The cannons roar from shore to shore; 

The small-arms make a rattle, 
Since wars began, I'm sure no man 

E'er saw so strange a battle .... 

The kegs, 'tis said, tho' strongly made 

Of rebel staves and hoops. Sir, 
Could not oppose their pow'rful foes. 

The conq'ering British troops. Sir. 

From morn to night these men of might 

Display 'd amazing courage; 
And when the sun was fairly down, 

Retir'd to sup their porrage .... 

Such feats did they perform that day 

Against these wicked kegs, Sir, 
That years to come, if they get home, 

They'll make their boast and brags. Sir. 

His prose. Two of Judge Hopkinson's political allegories 
in prose were decidedly amusing to his contemporaries, and 
though they are rarely -read today, they were of considerable 
importance in the development of American prose. "The 
Pretty Story" deals with the conflict between England, "the 
old farm," and America, "the new farm," and their "wives," 
the English Parliament and the colonial governments 
respectively. "The New Roof" is a presentation of the 
new form of government under the federal Constitution. 
Francis Hopkinson's son, Joseph Hopkinson (1770-1842), 
wrote in 1798 the words and music of the well-known 
patriotic song "Hail, Colimibia." 

The Hartford Wits. A school of writers with a more or 
less well-defined literary purpose sprang up in Connecticut 



The Revolutionary Period 69 

dtiring the Revolution. There were ten or a dozen ambitious 
young college men, well versed in the classics and in the 
literary methods of the English writers of the eighteenth 
century, particularly those of Pope and Samuel Butler. 
They wrote political satires, long allegories and epics, and 
some religious poetry, and tried in a sort of concerted way 
to establish a standard of formal literature in America 
similar to the classical school in England. Most of these 
young literary aspirants were Yale men. Hartford rather 
than New Haven was the chief center of their later activities, 
and so they came to be known as the "Hartford Wits." 
Only three of them need demand our attention here — 
John Trumbull, Timothy Dwight, and Joel Barlow. 

John Trumbull. John Trumbull (1750-1831) was the 
most popular and probably the most gifted of these three 
Hartford Wits. He was bom in Connecticut in 1750. He 
showed remarkable precocity, learning to read before he 
was three years old, completing the Bible at the age of 
four, and learning many of Watts's hymns and composing 
similar verses himself even before he had learned to write. 
When his father was tutoring a lad of seventeen who was 
preparing to enter Yale College, the boy of seven, loitering 
about the room, showed more proficiency in his ability to 
read and construe Latin than did the youth of seventeen. 
He was allowed to take the lessons regularly thereafter, 
and he passed the entrance examinations at Yale with 
apparent ease at this early age. He did not enter college 
until he was thirteen, however, spending the intervening 
years in doing a considerable amount of reading in the 
classics. He graduated at Yale when he was seventeen, 
and then spent three years more in general reading and study, ^ 
taking his master's degree when he was twenty. During 
these years he began to write both poetry and prose, mostly 
in imitation of the eighteenth-century English writers. 
With his friend Timothy Dwight he contributed essays to 



70 History oj American Literature 

two periodicals in imitation of Addison's Spectator, namely, 
The Medler and The Correspondent. Shortly after gradua- 
tion Trumbull became a tutor at Yale, and during this 
period he wrote a long satiric poem on the hollow and 
impractical type of education then offered, especially for 
ministers and women, calling his production The Progress 
of Dulness. It consisted of three cantos, the first on "The 
Adventures of Tom Brainless," the second on "The Life 
and Character of Dick Hairbrain," and the third on "The 
Adventures of Miss Harriet Simper."^ 

"McFingal." Trumbull's most famous work, "McFingal," 
was begun in 1776 but not completed until 1782. It is a 
burlesque epic, written in the sing-song octosyllabic coup- 
lets which the English writer Samuel Butler had so success- 
fully employed in Hudihras, his satire on the Puritans. So 
accurate was the imitation that several of Trumbull's 
couplets have been quoted as Butler's, especially this one: 

No man e'er felt the halter draw, 
With good opinion of the law. 

McFingal is a long-winded Tory constable, or squire, who 
thinks he is a great orator and a great power in colonial 
politics. Trumbull puts some extraordinarily ridiculous and 
blatant speeches into the pseudo-hero's mouth, and finally 
makes him the butt of the patriots' humorous wrath. In 
its finished form McFingal consists of four cantos, the first 
two being devoted to the "Town Meeting," morning and 
afternoon; the third, to "The Liberty Pole" or McFingal's 
attack on the patriots' flag pole, his elevation to the top of 
it by a rope hooked to his middle, and his subsequent tarring 
and feathering; the fourth, to "The Vision," or McFingal's 
"second sight" in a dark cellar, in which he is forewarned 



iProfessor Boynton suggests that the names represent three types of 
young people — Tom, Dick, and Harry,— the last becoming "Harriet" to 
fit the coquette. {American Poetry, page 608.) 



The Revolutionary Period 71 

of all the defeats and disasters which were to befall the 
Tories during the coming years. Fortunately for the accu- 
racy of this so-called "vision," Trumbull waited until after 
the defeat of Cornwallis in 1782 to write this canto, thus 
learning the actual sequence of events before making his 
prophecies. 

Nature of the satire. The poem is full of classical and 
historical lore and contains many allusions now unintelligible 
except with the help of the footnotes. Particularly effective 
are the burlesque imitations of and allusions to the great 
world epics, such as the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, the 
Aeileid of Virgil, and the Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained 
of Milton. The following passage from the third canto, 
describing McFingal's capture and elevation on the liberty 
pole, will illustrate the mock-epic style and the broad humor 
of the famous old political satire which so greatly amused 
our Revolutionary sires. 

Swift turn'd M'Fingal at the view, 
And call'd to aid th' attendant crew. 
In vain; the Tories all had run. 
When scarce the fight was well begun; 
Their setting wigs he saw decreas'd 
Far in th' horizon tow'rd the west 
Amazed he view'd the shameful sight, 
And saw no refuge, but in flight: 
But age unwieldy check'd his pace. 
Though fear had wing'd his flying race; 
For not a trifling prize at stake; 
No less than great M'Fingal's back. 
With legs and arms he work'd his course, 
Like rider that outgoes his horse. 
And labor'd hard to get away, as 
Old Satan struggling on through chaos; 
'Till looking back, he spied in rear 
The spade-arm'd chief advanced too near: 
Then stopp'd and seized a stone, that lay 
An ancient landmark near the way; 
Nor shall we as old Bards have done. 



72 History of American Literature 

Affirm it weigh'd an hundred ton: 

But such a stone, as at a shift 

A modern might suffice to Hft, 

Since men, to credit their enigmas, 

Are dwindled down to dwarfs and pigmies, 

And giants exiled with their cronies 

To Brobdignags and Patagonias. 

But while our Hero tum'd him round, 

And tugg'd to raise it from the ground, 

The fatal spade discharged a blow 

Tremendous on his rear below: 

His bent knee fail'd, and void of strength, 

Stretch'd on the ground his manly length. 

Like ancient oak o'erturn'd, he lay. 

Or tower to tempests fall'n a prey. 

Or mountain sunk with all his pines. 

Or flow'r the plow to dust consigns, 

And more things else — but all men know 'em, 

If slightly versed in epic poem. 

At once the crew, at this dread crisis, 

Fall on, and bind him ere he rises, 

And with loud shouts and joyful soul, 

Conduct him prisoner to the pole. 

When now the mob in lucky hour 

Had got their en'mies in their power, 

They first proceed, by grave command. 

To take the Constable in hand. 

Then from the pole's sublimest top 

The active crew let down the rope, 

At once its other end in haste bind 

And make it fast upon his waistband; 

Till like the earth, as stretch'd on tenter. 

He hung self-balanced on his center. 

Then upwards, all hands hoisting sail. 

They swung him, like a keg of ale. 

Till to the pinnacle in height 

He vaulted, like balloon or kite. 

Timothy Dwight. Timothy Dwight (17 52-18 17), another 
of the Hartford Wits, was associated with Trumbull in his 
early literary efforts. A grandson of Jonathan Edwards, 
Dwight was born in Massachusetts in 1752; was educated 



The Revolutionary Period 73 

at Yale, where he was for a time a tutor; and finally became 
a chaplain in the Continental Army. At the end of the 
Revolutionary War he became the pastor of the church at 
Greenfield Hill, Fairfield, Connecticut, and from 1795 to 
his death in 18 17 he was the president of Yale College. He 
was a profuse prose writer, committing many of his sermons, 
the records of his travels, and his commonplace observations 
on contemporary life to paper, and a goodly portion of them 
also to print. He was an ambitious poet, composing a long 
Biblical epic in heroic couplets, The Conquest of Canaan, 
and another long poem of seven parts which he called 
Greenfield Hill. The different parts of this last-named work 
were professedly written in imitation of well known English 
poets, such as Pope, Butler, Goldsmith, and others. None 
of Dwight's poetry is read today by any except specialists, 
with perhaps a single exception in the instance of the patri- 
otic lyric, "Coliunbia," which was highly admired during 
the Revolution and has since been frequently reprinted 
in lyric and patriotic collections. The closing stanza will 
illustrate the somewhat vaunting rhetoric. 

Thus, as down a lone valley, with cedars o'erspread. 
From war's dread confusion I pensively strayed. 
The gloom from the face of fair heav'n retired; 
The winds ceased to murmur; the thunders expired; 
Perfumes as of Eden, flowed sweetly along, 
And a voice, as of angels, enchantingly sung: 
Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise, 
The queen of the world, and the child of the skies! 

Still better known, because it has been preserved in our 
familiar church songs, is Dwight's hymn, "I Love Thy 
Kingdom, Lord." 

Joel Barlow. Joel Barlow (1754-1812), the third impor- 
tant member of the Yale group, was born in Connecticut, 
graduated at Yale in 1778, and before the end of the Revolu- 
tion became a chaplain in a Massachusetts brigade. He 



74 History of American Literature 

engaged in several business enterprises connected with 
publication and bool: selling, compiling, among other things, 
a psalm book for use in Congregational churches. He began 
a patriotic epic called The Vision of Columbus, published 
it in 1787, and twenty years later expanded it into the 
Columbiad (1807), a poem in eleven long books written in 
heroic couplets. In its style this so-called epic is more 
bombastic and rhetorical than sublime or inspired. Pro- 
fessor Bronson calls it "a stage-coach epic, lumbering and 
slow." In this ambitious effort, which he innocentty com- 
pared with the epics of Homer, Virgil, and Milton, Barlow 
has become the stock example of an author who overesti- 
mates his strength and attempts things entirely beyond his 
compass. In his later years Barlow went abroad and 
engaged in pamphleteering in England and in political 
intrigues in France. He was appointed to several diplo- 
matic posts, finally losing his life in the famous retreat from 
Moscow, where he had gone in an effort to reach Napoleon 
and present his credentials as a representative from the 
United States. A few years before his death Barlow was 
living in France, and in Savoy he was served with a portion 
of his favorite dish made from American maize, or Indian 
corn, and he at once composed "The Hasty Pudding," a 
long mock-heroic poem. It seems that he could write the 
mock-epic better than the serious epic, for by the irony of 
fate, this playful bit of fancy, because of the fact that it is 
lighted up by a touch of the comic, is to-day far better 
known than the ponderous epic upon which Barlow based 
his hope for fame. The following brief quotation suggests 
strongly that the meter and style are closely modeled on 
Goldsmith's "The Traveller," though the mock-heroic tone 
is evident: 



Dear Hasty Pudding, what unpromised joy 
Expands my heart to meet thee in Savoy! 



The Revolutionary Period 75 

Doom'd o'er the earth through devious paths to roam, 
Each dime my country and each house my home, 
My soul is soothed, my cares have found an end, 
I greet my long-lost, unforgotten friend. 

Philip Freneau: his early life. If Yale was the source of 
the most notable school of poets during the Revolutionary- 
period, Princeton deserves the credit of sending forth the 
one poet of real genius whom America produced before 
the nineteenth century— namely, Philip Freneau (1752- 
1832). Of Huguenot descent, Freneau was born in New 
York City, but at an early age he was taken to New 
Jersey, and he is therefore usually reckoned among the 
worthies of the last-named state. He was educated in the 
schools of New York and at the College of New Jersey 
(Princeton), where he was graduated with distinction in 
1 77 1. He began writing poetry while he was in college, 
composing a long poem in heroic couplets on "The Prophet 
Jonah"; and collaborating with his classmate, Hugh Henry 
Brackenridge, the author of Modern Chivalry, he composed 
a patriotic poem called "The Rising Glory of America," 
in the form of a colloquy, which he and Brackenridge may 
have read jointly as a commencement ode at their gradua- 
tion exercises. These two friends with two other classmates, 
William Bradford and James Madison, were intensely 
American in their sympathies, and together they formed a 
Whig society and wrote satires against the Tories. 

Sailor, editor, and poet. Freneau engaged in teaching 
for some time after his graduation, and then went to New 
York, where he published a ntmiber of polemical and political 
essays and many satires against the Tories and patriotic 
poems in favor of American liberty. Being of an advent- 
urous turn of mind, he determined to go to sea. He shipped 
for Jamaica and soon became a proficient sailor. He 
continued to write poetry, composing several long poems 
on subjects suggested by his travels, as for example, "The 



76 History of American Literature 

Jamaica Funeral" and "The Beauties of Santa Cruz." 
"The House of Night," an imaginative poem on death, is 
another notable production which belongs to this period. 
Finally he was captured by the British and confined for 
nearly two months in prison ships, an experience which 
inspired one of his most graphic and savage satires, "The 
Prison Ship," — 

These Prison Ships where pain and horror dwell, 
Where death in tenfold vengeance holds his reign, 
And injur'd ghosts, yet unaveng'd, complain. 

After his release he returned to Mount Pleasant, the family 
estate near Middletown Point, New Jersey, and again took 
up editorial work, becoming for several years the chief 
contributor to The Freeman's Journal published at Phila- 
delphia. About this time he composed some of his best 
poems, notably the lament for the patriots who fell under 
General Greene at Eutaw Springs, and some of his best 
sea poems, including "Captain Jones's Invitation," "The 
Sea Voyage," and "The Hurricane." After another period 
of adventurous seafaring as captain of several trading 
vessels, about 1791 Freneau returned to the shore to 
take up editorial work at first on the New York Daily 
Advertiser and shortly afterwards on The National Gazette, 
a journal which he founded in Philadelphia. He naturally 
became involved in the bitter political discussions of the 
times, taking sides with Jefferson and against Hamilton, 
and later, on account of his pro-French sentiments in con- 
nection with the Genet affair, arousing the enmity of Wash- 
ington himself. Freneau sought relief from these political 
turmoils by going to sea. He eventually returned to Mount 
Pleasant and lived on through the War of 18 12 and the two 
following decades, finally losing his life in a fierce snow 
storm in 1832. 

Freneau s nature lyrics. Freneau's most purely poetical 



The Revolutionary Period 77 

work is a number of really excellent nature lyrics and 
imaginative poems. Professor Pattee^ speaks eloquently of 
the evidences of early romanticism in Freneau's poetry, 
pointing out examples of early romantic influences in "The 
House of Night," "one of the earliest poems in that dimly 
lighted region which was soon to be exploited by Coleridge 
and Poe"; in his sea poems; in his imaginative treatment of 
Indian life, as in his "Indian Death Song" and "The Indian 
Burying-Ground" ; and above all in his nature lyrics, which 
were distinctly in the Words worthian vein, as "The Dying 
Elm," "The Sleep of Plants," "To a Honey Bee," "To a 
Caty-did," and particularly in "The Wild Honeysuckle," a 
flawless nature lyric written in 1786, at least a dozen years 
before Wordsworth and Coleridge published the Lyrical 
Ballads (1798). "The Wild Honeysuckle," the one almost 
perfect art lyric produced in America before the nineteenth 
century, is worthy of full quotation here. 

THE WILD HONEYSUCKLE 
Fair flower, that dost so comely grow, 

Hid in this silent, dull retreat. 
Untouched thy honied blossoms blow, 
Unseen thy little branches greet ; 

No roving foot shall crush thee here, 
No busy hand provoke a tear. 
By Nature's self in white arrayed, 

She bade thee shun the vulgar eye, 
And planted here the guardian shade, 
And sent soft waters murmuring by; 
Thus quietly thy summer goes, 
Thy days declining to repose. 
Smit with those charms, that must decay, 

I grieve to see your future doom; 
They died— nor were those flowers more gay, 
The flowers that did in Eden bloom; 
Unpitying frosts and autumn's power 
Shall leave no vestige of this flower. 

^ Poems of Philip Freneau, 3 vols. Ed. by F. L. Pattee, Princeton, 1902. 



78 History of American Literature 

From morning suns and evening dews 

At first thy little being came: 
If nothing once, you nothing lose, 
For when you die you are the same; 
The space between, is but an hour, 
The frail duration of a flower. 

Estimate of Freneau. In our enthusiasm for the good 
qualities of this poem and other excellent lyrics of Freneau' s, 
especially when we recall that the English poet Campbell 
borrowed a line from "The Indian Burying Ground," 

"The hunter and the deer — a shade," 

and Scott enthusiastically praised "The Lament on the 
Patriots who Fell at Eutaw Springs," himself using a 
line from this poem in the third canto of Marmion, 
we are likely to overestimate the work of this early American ; 
but Freneau must after all be ranked as a minor poet. 
The following paragraph from Professor Pattee's introduction 
to his excellent edition of Freneau's Poems is a judicious 
summary. "As to the absolute literary value of Freneau's 
literary remains, there is room for honest difference of 
opinion. He certainly is not, if we judge him from what 
he actually produced, a great poet. But he must in fairness 
be viewed against the background of his age and environ- 
ment. Nature had equipped him as she has equipped 
few other men. He had the poet's creative imagination; 
he had an exquisite sense of the beautiful; and he had a 
realization of his own poetic endowments that kept him 
during a long life constantly true to the muse. Scarcely a 
month went by in all his life, from his early boyhood, that 
was not marked by poetic composition. Few poets, even 
in later and more auspicious days, have devoted their lives 
more assiduously to song."^ 



^Poems of Philip Freneau, Vol. I Introduction, p. xcviii. 



The Revolutionary Period 79 

Drama and Fiction 

National drama. The drama of the Revolutionary era is 
mainly significant for its historical value in reflecting the 
spirit of the times. Thomas Godfrey's The Prince of 
Parthia, written about 1759 and published in 1765, we 
mentioned at the close of the colonial period as the first 
literary drama composed in America. It was played at 
Philadelphia in 1767, and was, according to Seilhamer, 
author of History of the American Theater, the first American 
play that was actually staged by a professional company. 
In the meantime, of course, many English plays had been 
acted much earlier ; as early as 1 7 1 5 some references to a 
theater and plays acted in Williamsburg. Virginia, have 
been noted; and English plays by a regular company were 
acted in New York as early as 1732, in Charleston, South 
Carolina, as early as 1734, and in Philadelphia as early as 
1749. 

Plays on American subjects. Numerous plays dealing 
with American subjects were written during the period of 
the Revolution. "Ponteach, or The Savages of America," 
a play appearing in 1766 and dealing in a satiric way with 
the white man's cruel and unjust treatment of the simple- 
minded Indians, has been ascribed on uncertain evidence 
to Robert Rogers, an English officer in the French and Indian 
War. Mrs. Mercy Warren (i 728-1814), of Massachusetts, 
the sister of James Otis, wrote several plays on American 
subjects, the best of which is "The Group" (1775), a comedy 
satirizing the loyalists. Hugh Henry Brackenridge (1748- 
18 16), of Pennsylvania, the friend and classmate of Philip 
Freneau and James Madison at the College of New Jersey, 
was the author of the best literary dramas that appeared 
during the period of the actual struggle for independence; 
they are, however, more properly dramatic poems or closet 
plays than acting dramas. The titles of his plays are "The 



8o History of American Literature 

Battle of Bunker's Hill" (1776) and "The Death of General 
Montgomery" (1777). 

William Dunlap. Another dramatist of some distinction 
was William Dunlap (i 766-1839), of New York. He was 
a practical playwright and theater manager and our first 
historian of the drama, and his influence was considerable 
in his day. He wrote some thirty original plays, among 
them "The Father; or, American Shandyism" (1789), a 
comedy, and "Andre" (1798), an historical play in blank 
verse; he made many adaptations of foreign plays for the 
American stage; he was a portrait painter of distinction; 
and he wrote ten or more biographies and critical works. ^ 

Royall Tyler. One other name should be mentioned in 
connection with early American drama, that of Royall Tyler 
(1757-1826), who was born and educated in Massachusetts, 
and later became chief justice of Vermont. He wrote "The 
Contrast," a comedy which was acted with great success 
in New York in 1786 and published four years later. It is 
based on the contrast between native American worth and 
the silly imitation of foreign conventions. The first typical 
stage Yankee, in the person of the shrewd New England 
farmer, Jonathan, speaking in his native dialect, appears 
in this play. Tyler wrote a number of other plays and 
farces, and also a prose narrative of adventure called The 
Algerine Captive (1797), which may be classed with our 
early novels. 

Joseph Dennie. Joseph Dennie (1768-1812), whose work 
has been almost entirely forgotten, exerted considerable in- 
fluence on the literature of his day, and in particular he 
deserves to be remembered as the forerunner of Irving. He 
was called the "American Addison," probably because he 



iln an excellent monograph by Dr. O. S. Coad, "William Dunlap, A Study 
of his Life and Work and of his Place in Contemporary Culture," recently 
published by the Dunlap Society of New York, full lists of all the works 
of this indefatigable painter, manager, dramatist, and critic are made 
available. 



The Revolutionary Period 8i 

imitated Addison in a number of mixed essays published 
under the title of the Farrago (a medley) in The Morning 
Ray, a periodical issued in Vermont in imitation of Addison's 
Spectator. Then he published a large niunber of essays in 
The Farmers' Museum, and later collected them in a volume 
called The Lay Preacher (1796). In 1801 Dennie became 
the founder and editor of a literary periodical published in 
Philadelphia and called The Port Folio. This journal was 
one of the most important early literary periodicals pub- 
lished in America, and the longest-lived, its publication 
being continued until 1827. In The Port Folio Dennie 
reprinted some of his previously published essays and many 
new ones. He encouraged the development of polite litera- 
ture and was generally looked upon as the central figure in 
the literary circles of Philadelphia.^ 

Sentimental novels. A number of tearful and senti- 
mental novels, principally by a school of women writers, 
appeared toward the close of the eighteenth-century. 
Among these were Mrs. Sarah Morton's The Power of Sym- 
pathy, or The Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth (1789); 
Mrs. Susanna Rowson's Charlotte Temple, A Tale of Truth 
(1790), Trials of the Human Heart (1795), and many other 
stories; and Mrs. Hannah Foster's The Coquette, or The His- 
tory of Eliza Wharton, a Novel Founded on Fact (1797). Of 
the many sentimental novels of the time, Charlotte Temple, 
which was the most popular in its day and which has proved 
the most tenacious of life, being republished in over one 
hundred editions up to 1905, is typical. It is the pathetic 
story of love and innocence, betrayal, desertion, and death 
from a broken heart. These highly colored and over- 
wrought narratives, made up largely of unreal characters 
and unnatural situations usually said to be based on truth, 



iSee Dr. H. M. Ellis's excellent monograph "Joseph Dennie and his 
circle, A Study in American Literature from 1792 to 1812," Bulletin 1915, 
No. 40, University of Texas, Austin. 



82 History of American Literature 

and designed to move the reader to tears and at the same 
time teach some moral or inculcate some paramount virtue, 
are now solely valuable as an indication of the taste of the 
times and as an American example of the English senti- 
mental school led by Samuel Richardson, the author of 
Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded. To these sentimental novels 
may be added H. H. Brackenridge's Modern Chivalry, or The 
Adventures of Captain Farrago and Teague O'Regan, his 
Servant (1792-93-97), a burlesque after the manner of Don 
Quixote, satirizing post-Revolutionary customs and events; 
and Jeremy Belknap's The Foresters (1792), an allegorical 
narrative dealing with the relations of the colonies to the 
English government, as the best examples of early fiction in 
America. 

Charles Brockden Brown: the mystery and horror 
school. Before the end of the century the American novel 
was to find its first serious exponent in a Philadelphian, 
Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810). He was descended 
from a Quaker family, educated in the schools of Phila- 
delphia, and prepared for the profession of law. Being 
strotigly drawn toward literature, he deserted the law and 
turned to writing as a means of earning his livelihood, thus 
becoming the first man in America who adopted literature 
as a profession. He was never robust, and he devoted him- 
self so steadily to study, even from his early boyhood, that 
his health was permanently impaired. He moved to New 
York for a time, and here published his first work. The 
Dialogue of Alcuin (1797), a vigorous pamphlet on the rights 
of woman. He was professedly writing under the influence of 
William Godwin, the bold English radical thinker, the author 
of Political Justice, sl pamphlet, and Ca/e6T'Fi//iam5, a romance 
in which the miscarriage of justice is discussed. The influ- 
ence of Godwin and other members of the early romantic 
school of English novelists known as the horror school, is, 
in fact, evident in all of Brown's work. Horace Walpole's 



The Revolutionary Period 83 

The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Romance, Lewis's The Monk, 
and Mrs. Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho are the stock 
examples of this English horror school. Brown follows 
them in conjuring up mysteries and supernatural situations 
based on some reasonable or pseudo-scientific grounds. 
His first novel, Wieland, or The Transformation (1798), 
belongs distinctly to the horror school, and we may analyze 
it as a typical illustration of the five other novels which 
followed from his pen in rapid succession. 

"Wieland." Wieland, usually considered as Brown's 
most powerful novel, is the story of a cultured family of 
Germans who live in Philadelphia and whose happy domestic 
life is interrupted by certain strange and apparently super- 
natural sounds. These distressing circumstances are par- 
tially compensated for by the appearance of a pleasing and 
polite stranger named Carwin. Wieland's father, a religious 
enthusiast, is said to have died from spontaneous combus- 
tion, an uncanny and really impossible form of disease in 
which the body becomes so violently heated from within 
that it is set on fire and consumed. The son inherits a 
superstitious trend of mind and becomes himself a religious 
fanatic. Hence he is well prepared by heredity and tem- 
perament to answer the strange and seductive voices heard 
throughout the dwelling. Wieland is called upon to sacrifice 
his beautiful wife and daughter, and he proceeds to these 
crimes on the supposition that he is answering the commands 
of God. After committing the double murder, Wieland is 
confined in a madman's cell, from which he eventually 
escapes and attempts to murder other members of his 
family. He then learns that he has been duped by the 
mysterious stranger Carwin, who through his powers of 
ventriloquism has led Wieland to murder his family. When 
he realizes what he has done, Wieland kills himself, and the 
stranger disappears. The story ends with the marriage of 
Wieland's sister, the narrator of the tale, to one of the minor 



84 History of American Literature 

characters. It can be readily discerned by even a casual 
reader that the plot is loosely constructed and that the 
motivation of the action is entirely insufficient and uncon- 
vincing. But Brown's power of portraying the horrible, 
the supernatural, the terrible, is natural and spontaneous, 
and there is no lack of interest and excitement in the reading 
of his story. 

Brown's other tales. Ormond, or The Secret Witness, 
appeared in 1799, and Arthur Mervyn, or Memoirs of the 
Year 1793, in two volumes in 1799 and 1800. Both of these 
stories deal with the terrible yellow fever epidemics which 
ravaged Philadelphia in the last decade of the century. 
Brown had personally experienced the horrors of the disease, 
being attacked by it while he was living in New York, and 
his descriptions are extremely powerful and realistic. Poe 
himself has hardly surpassed Brown in the portrayal of these 
hideous and repulsive scenes of disease and death, though 
Poe's artistic sense, of course, is superior to Brown's. Edgar 
Huntly, or The Adventures of a Sleep-Walker, published in 
1801, shows Brown's descriptive powers to the best advan- 
tage, especially in the portrayal of the gloomy caves -and 
wild natural scenes which the author had visited in his long 
walks about the environs of Philadelphia. In this novel 
Brown clearly intended, as he states in a prefatory note, 
to make his work distinctly American in every particular. 
He introduced romantic incidents from Indian life and war- 
fare, — thus preceding Cooper in this field, — described with 
accurate details the exact flora and fauna of the wild Ameri- 
can background, and gave vivid pictures of primitive 
customs of both the Indian and the European population 
of America. Clara Howard (1801) and Jane Talbot (1801) 
complete the list of Brown's novels. These last two are 
loosely constructed love stories and are distinctly inferior 
to the earlier romances of their author. 

Last days: general estimate of Brown. Brown was engaged 



The Revolutionary Period 85 

in editorial work on magazines and annuals at Philadelphia, 
and during his later years he occupied himself with the com- 
pilation of geographical and historical works which he left 
unfinished at his death in 18 10. He had long been a sufferer 
from consumption, and in the later years his creative powers 
seem to have been largely sapped by the disease. While 
he was not a great writer, he was our first notable novelist, 
a forerunner of Cooper, Poe, and Hawthorne. He deserves 
to be remembered also as our first purely professional 
author. His romances are still read to some extent by the 
general reader, and his work has been generously praised 
by his early biographers, William Dunlap and W. H. Pres- 
cott, and by the later historians of our literature. After 
Franklin, who must be accorded first place on account of 
his immortal Autobiography, we may place the novelist 
Charles Brockden Brown beside the poet Philip Freneau, as 
one of the two most important purely literary figures in 
the first two centuries of our history. 

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHIES 

SUITABLE FOR HIGH-SCHOOL LIBRARIES AND 

OUTSIDE READING 

Special Reference Books for Revolutionary Literature 1 

Starred volumes are especially valuable for high-school libraries. 
(For General References, see page 40.) 

I. History of Literature and Selections 

*Tyler, Literary History of the American Revolution, 1763-1783; 2 

vols., Putnam, N. Y., 1897. 
Patterson, The Spirit of the American Revolution as Revealed in the 

Poetry of the Period: A Study of American Patriotic Verse from 

1760 to 1783; Badger, Boston, 1915. 
LosHE, The Early American Novel; Lemcke & Buechner, N. Y., 1908. 
*Cairns, Selections from Early American Writers, 1607-1800. (See p. 29.) 
DuYCKiNCK, Cyclopaedia of American Literature. (See p. 28.) 
*Stedman and Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, Vols. 

Ill and IV. (See p. 28.) 

1 The important works of authors treated in the body of the text are not 
listed here. 



86 History of American Literature 

*QuiNN, editor, Representative American Plays; Century, N. Y., 1917. 

(The first three plays are from the Colonial and Revolutionary 

Period.) 
*MosES, Representative Plays by American Dramatists, 3 vols.. Button^ 

N. Y., 1918. 
*Stedman, An American Anthology, 1787-IQ00; Houghton Mifflin, 

Boston, 1900. 
*Stedm.\n, Poets of America; Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1899. 
Eggleston, American War Ballads and Lyrics; Putnam, N. Y., 1889. 
*Stevenson, Poems of American History; Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 

1908. 
Matthews, Poems of American Patriotism; Scribner's, N. Y., 1898. 

2. Later Poetry Dealing with Revolutionary Times 

Longfellow, "Paul Revere's Ride." 

Bryant, "Song of Marion's Men" (compare Simms's song on the same 

theme in The Partisan). 
Read, "The Rising." 

Emerson, "Concord Hymn," "Boston Hymn." 
Whittier, "Lexington," "Centennial Hymn." 
Holmes, "Grandmother's Story of Bunker Hill," "Ballad of the Boston 

Tea-Party," "Lexington." 
Finch, "Nathan Hale." 
Lanier, "Psalm of the West." 
Hayne, "Macdonald's Raid — 1780." 
(See Burton E. Stevenson's Poems of American History, Houghton Mifflin , 

Boston, 1908, for fuller lists of poems dealing with the Revolutionary 

Period.) 

J. Later Fiction Dealing ivith Revolutionary Times 

Cooper, The Spy, The Pilot, Lionel Lincoln, etc. 

Kennedy, Horse-Shoe Robinson: A Tale of the Tory Ascendency. 

SiMMS, The Partisan: A Tale of the Revolution, The Scout, Eutaw, 

Katherine Walton, etc. 
Cooke, The Virginia Comedians, Henry St. John. 
Thompson, Green Mountain Boys, The Rangers. 
Coffin, The Boys of 'y6. 
Butterworth, The Patriot Schoolmaster. 
Eggleston, A Carolina Cavalier. 
Thackeray, The Virginians. 
Craddock, The Story of Old Fort Loudon. 
Ford, Janice Meredith. 



The Revolutionary Period 87 

Jewett, The Tory Lover. 

Atherton, The Conqueror (Alexander Hamilton). 

Allen, The Choir Invisible. 

Churchill, Richard Carvel. 

Mitchell, Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker and The Red City. 

Frederic, In the Valley. 

Henty, Tnce to the Old Flag. 

Stevenson, B. G., A Soldier of Virginia. 

4. Essays and Historical Works Dealing with the Revolutionary Times 

FiSKE, American Revolution; also, for young readers, The War oj 

Independence. 
Hart, Formation of the Union, Camp and Fireside of the Revolution. 
Earle, Stage Coach and Tavern Days. 
Jenks, When America Won Liberty. 
American Statesman Series (including biographies of Washington, 

Hamilton, Jefferson, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Henry, Madison, 

etc.). 



III. ARTISTIC OR CREATIVE PERIOD 

I 800-1900 

Preliminary Statement 

General summary of the two preceding periods. 

Glancing back over the whole course of our literature up 
to the beginning of the nineteenth century, we observe 
that the earliest American writings were produced by the 
Southern Colonies -with Virginia as the center and Captain 
John Smith and Colonel William Byrd as the chief repre- 
sentatives of what we may term the Cavalier chroniclers; 
that the primacy of literary production of the theological 
type belongs to the New England Colonies with Boston and 
its environs as the chief center and the Reverend Cotton 
Mather and the Reverend Jonathan Edwards as the chief 
literary exponents of the Calvinistic theology of our Puritan 
forefathers. Then during the later struggle between the 
French and the English colonies and between the English 
colonies and the mother country, the Middle Colonies with 
Philadelphia as the chief city became the principal center 
of the controversial literature of the period, with orators 
and pamphleteers and publicists, such as Otis and Henry^ 
Thomas Paine and John Dickinson, Alexander Hamilton 
and Thomas Jefferson and George Washington as typical 
figures, and with the beginnings of a more personal and 
permanent type of literature in the Autobiography of 
Franklin, the nature poetry of Philip Freneau, and the 
novels of Charles Brockden Brown. During the first 
quarter of the nineteenth century we must note the shift of 
the center of commercial and literary activities to the 
growing metropolis of New York City, where Washington 
Irving and his associates founded what has later become 
known as the Knickerbocker School. 

[88] 



Artistic or Creative Period: New York Group 89 

The four divisions of the nineteenth century. In a 

brief survey of the artistic and creative literature of the 
nineteenth century in America, we shall find that several 
distinct schools or movements are to be recorded, but these 
schools or movements have revolved pretty definitely around 
the Middle Atlantic States including New York, Penn- 
sylvania, and New Jersey, with New York City as the 
center; New England with Boston and its environs as the 
center; the more distinctly local or regional Hterary expres- 
sion in the South, as illustrated in the distinct school at 
Charleston, South Carolina; and the central and far West 
coming forward in the last quarter of the century as the 
section in which the most uniformly democratic and purely 
national literary expression has taken rise. Hence we may 
readily and conveniently group our chief authors under 
four general regional divisions, and at the same time pre- 
serve the general integrity of the various schools and distinct 
movements and also the general chronological order — 
namely: (I) The New York and Middle Atlantic States 
Group; (II) The New England Group; (III) The Southern 
Group; and (IV) The Central and Far Western Group. 
The main purpose of the following sections will be to give 
a rapid survey of the writers of these groups, with some 
analysis of the distinct movements and general influences 
and tendencies in each. 

I. The New York and Middle Atlantic 
States Group 

The major writers. Washington Irving, the genial story- 
teller, essayist, biographer, and historian, is the leader 
of the New York or Knickerbocker School. With him 
are grouped the three other major writers : James Fenimore 
Cooper, the romancer, who was bom in New Jersey but 
lived from his infancy in New York and was intimately 
associated with the history and life of his adopted state; 



90 History of American Literature 

and the two poets, William Cullen Bryant, who was 
born in Western Massachusetts but was for more than half 
a century the most prominent figure in the journalistic, 
literary, and cultural life of New York City, and later in 
the century Walt Whitman, who was born on Long Island 
and lived almost entirely in the Middle Atlantic States, for 
the most part in the neighborhood of New York, calling it 
"Mannahatta, my city." With these four major writers 
we may associate a large company of minor writers whose 
work, especially when compared with much of our earlier 
literature, is highly meritorious. 

Washington Irving. Washington Irving (i 783-1859) has 
been called "The Father of American Literature," just as 
the great statesman and soldier for whom he was named is 
called "The Father of His Country." In a certain sense, 
Irving is the father of American literature. He was not our 
first author to devote himself entirely to literature, for 
Charles Brockden Brown had done that just before him; 
but he was the first of our authors to gain recognition abroad, 
■or, as Thackeray happily phrased it in his essay "Nil Nisi 
Bonum," "Irving was the first ambassador whom the New 
World of letters sent to the Old." The Sketch Book was, in 
fact, the first positive answer to the tantalizing British 
query, "Who reads an American book?" 

His early life and education. Irving was bom in New 
York City, April 3, 1783, the year which marked the defeat 
of Cornwallis and the close of the Revolution, and his 
mother, who was an ardent patriot, decided to name him 
for the great American general, for, she said, "Washington's 
work is ended, and the child shall be named for him." When 
Irving was six years old, his old Scotch nurse presented him 
to President Washington for his blessing. Irving remem- 
bered the incident, remarking in later years, "That blessing 
has attended me through life." It is interesting, finally, 
to note in this connection that Irving's last great work was 



Artistic or Creative Period: New York Group gr 



the five- volume Life of Washington, which appeared in 1859 
just before his death. Irving's parents were both born 




From an engraving by E. Burney, after a photograph 
WASHINGTON IRVING 

abroad, his father being of Scotch and his mother of Enghsh 
descent. There were born to them eleven children, of whom 
Washington was the youngest. He was a delicate and 
wayward sort of child, and hence his education was not 
very thorough or systematic. He read tales of travel and 
adventure, particularly The Arabian Nights and Robinson 
Crusoe, when he ought to have been studying his arithmetic; 
and it is said that he would willingly write the other boys' 



92 History of American Literature 

compositions if they would work his sums for him. He 
dropped out of school at sixteen, failing to take advantage 
of the opportunity of attending Columbia College as two 
of his brothers did. Instead, he spent his time in reading 
tales of romance, slipping away from home before and after 
family pra3'ers to attend the newly opened theater, and 
roaming the country roundabout, listening to the good 
wives' tales about ghosts and fairies in the surrotmding hills 
and valleys. He made several long holiday excursions into 
the Hudson River hill country' farther north, going on one 
of his trips even as far north as Canada, and collecting all 
the while those legends and nature pictures which he has 
so well preser\'ed in "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend 
of Sleepy Hollow." 

Irvings love affair. The plan for young Irv'ing's futiire 
was that he should become a lawyer. The chief result of 
his five years of desultory study of law, largely in Judge 
Hoffman's office, was his acquaintance with the Judge's 
daughter, Matilda. She was a beautiful and quick-witted 
girl, and Irving fell desperately in love with her. She was 
equally attracted to the handsome and genial youth and 
promised to marn.^ him, but developed rapid tuberculosis 
and died in her eighteenth year. Irving's devotion to her 
memon,^ is one of the most beautiful things in his life. He ' 
did not seclude himself from society nor become sentimen- 
tally morbid; indeed, he was always delighted with the 
society of women, and the evidence seems to show that he 
had some serious intentions of marrying later in life. But 
the fact remains that he never married, and after his death 
there were found among his cherished personal belongings a 
lock of Miss Hoffman's hair and her Bible and prayerbook. 

His first trip abroad: early literary undertakings. Ir\ang's 
constitution was still frail, and so in 1804 it was decided 
that he should visit Europe partly in search of health, but 
partly also for literary and cultural advantages. He traveled 



Artistic or Creative Period: New York Group 93 

through Italy, France, and England, meeting many dis- 
tinguished persons and making many friends by his genial 
manners and attractive personality. On his return in 1806, 
he was admitted to the bar, but he devoted his time more to 
social engagements and literary experiments than to his 
profession. Before his trip abroad he had contributed to a 
New York paper a series of light satiric letters, signing them 
"Jonathan Oldstyle," a name indicating at this early period 
his fondness for the eighteenth-century Addisonian prose 
style. With James K. Paulding^ he now undertook another 
experiment, a semi-monthly periodical called Salmagundi. 
It was modeled on the Spectator of Addison and Steele, and 
though it did not run quite a year, it gave both of these 
men an outlet for their literary aspirations and eventually 
led to other undertakings in authorship. 

His works classified. Irving's works may be divided into 
three classes: his humorous and serious sketches and essays, 
his longer connected narratives, and his biographical and 
historical narratives. The first of these is the most important 
and will receive the major part of our attention. 

"Knickerbocker's History." In 1809 there appeared the 
first really inportant work by Irving, namely, A History of 
New York by Diedrich Knickerbocker. It was begun as a 
satiric burlesque on Dr. Samuel Mitchell's Picture of New 
York, but it was carried out in such a fine spirit of humorous 
extravaganza that it was at once recognized as an original 
and imaginative work. It was preceded by a clever series of 
advertising notes in the form of news items about the peculiar 
and distressing disappearance of Diedrich Knickerbocker, 
"a small, elderly gentleman, dressed in an old black coat and 
a cocked hat. " He had left behind him a curious manuscript, 

'Aside from his association with Irving in the Salmagundi papers, James 
Kirke Paulding (1778-1860) is now chiefly remembered for his novel, The 
Dutchman's Fireside (1831), which portrays with considerable charm and 
accuracy the quaint Dutch customs and beautiful Hudson river scenery 
which Irving had already made famous in his Knickerbocker' s History and 
Sketch Book. 



94 History of American Literature 

which would be sold to pay his board bill. Naturally, when 
this manuscript was published everybody wanted to read it, 
and everybody, with the exception of a few serious-minded 
Dutch historians, was delighted with the good-natured and 
playful satire, the mock-serious exaggeration, and the quaint 
Dutch reminiscences which the book contained. It was 
talked and bandied about so freely that it gave a new word 
to the language, Knickerbocker, the generic name of the 
Dutch freeholders in America, a term later .applied to the 
first distinctive period of American literature. It is a diffi- 
cult thing for a purely humorous work to hold its place of 
popularity, and so we find today comparatively few readers 
of Knickerbocker's History. A little of it is still highly 
amusing, but style in writing, as in dress, changes from 
generation to generation, and the broad splashes of himior 
and elephantine facetiousness of the celebrated Knicker- 
bocker s History are not so attractive to modern readers as 
they were to Irving's contemporaries. 

Irving's social activities. After Knickerbocker's History 
Irving seems to have rested on his laurels for a period of ten 
years. He was nominally engaged in business with his 
brothers, but his duties seem to have been mainly to keep 
up the social side of the house. He was sent to Washington, 
ostensibly to protect the claims of certain business interests 
before Congress, but his letters relate more of his experiences 
in Mrs. Dolly Madison's and others' drawing-rooms than of 
his business activities. He also visited Baltimore and Phila- 
delphia, where he was received in the best society. His 
literary success had paved the way for him everywhere, and 
he was already something of a social lion. So ran the merry 
years away; and some serious ones, too, for Irving passed 
through the War of 1812, not in active service, it is true, 
but as a military aid to Governor Tompkins of New York. 

Irving's second visit to Europe: ''The Sketch Book." In 
181 5 he went to England to visit one of his brothers, 



Artistic or Creative Period: New York Group 95; 

intending to stay only a short time, but it was 1831 before 
he set foot on American soil again. He became the familiar 




JOSEPH JEFFERSON AS RIP VAN WINKLE 

friend of many notable persons in England and on the con- 
tinent, among them Sir Walter Scott, whom he visited at 



g6 History of American Literature 

Abbotsford. Then the business affairs of the family had 
gone to the bad, and Irving turned to Hterature for support. 
In 1819 he sent his manuscript sketches back to New York 
and had them pubHshed serially in nine numbers as The 
Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon. Sir Walter Scott interested 
himself in Irving's behalf and finally succeeded in getting 
the famous English publishing house of Murray to bring 
out a standard edition in England during the next year. 
The book was a great success — the first American book, 
in fact, that had been widely read in England. Some of 
the sketches now appeal to us as over-sentimental and even 
mawkish, but the fine quality of the style, the rich humor, 
and the emotional fitness of most of the pieces make The 
Sketch Book a classic in our literature. Four of the papers 
have been singled out to endure as long as the language — 
"Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," 
two tales supposed to be the posthumous work of Diedrich 
Knickerbocker, and two pleasingly romantic essays, "West- 
minster Abbey " and " Stratford-on-Avon. " 

Other books in the ''Sketch Book" vein. Other books of 
sketches and stories are Bracebridge Hall (1822), Tales of a 
Traveler (1824), The Alhambra (1832), and Woolferfs Roost 
(1855). Each of these contains some excellent work, but no 
one of them quite equals The Sketch Book in power and popu- 
larity. Bracebridge Hall contains the quaintly humorous 
sketch of "The Stout Gentleman" and the Knickerbocker 
story of "Dolph Heileger." In the Tales of a Traveler 
are a nimiber of stories of adventure that will delight 
young readers, such as "Kidd the Pirate" and "The Devil 
and Tom Walker" found in the fourth division under the 
general title of "The Money-Diggers." The Alhambra, 
called by Prescott "that delightful Spanish Sketch Book," 
is, next to the original volume, the best of all the series of 
short sketches and stories. It is a book filled with beautiful 
descriptions, strange legends, and romantic tales. Irving 



Artistic or Creative Period: New York Group 97 

was deeply impressed with the beauty of the old Moorish 
palace, and he has succeeded remarkably well in investing 
this wonderful building with a glamour of mystical romance 
and rich legendary lore. These essays, sketches, and tales, 
then, are the productions upon which Irving's literary fame 
chiefly rests. In this connection we may quote a significant 
passage from a letter written by Irving in 1824 when some 
of his friends were urging him to write a novel: 

For my part, I consider a story merely as a frame on which to 
stretch my materials. It is the play of thought and sentiment and 
language; the weaving in of characters, lightly, yet expressively, delin- 
eated; the familiar and faithful exhibition of scenes in common life; 
and the half- concealed vein of humor that is often playing through 
the whole — these are among what I aim at, and upon which I felicitate 
myself in proportion as I think I succeed. I have preferred adopting 
the mode of sketches and short tales rather than long works, because 
I choose to take a line of writing peculiar to myself, rather than fall 
into the manner and school of any other writer. 

Irving s longer narratives. We may dismiss the second 
class with but a brief mention of titles: A Tour of the 
Prairies (1835), Astoria (1836), and The Adventures oj 
Captain Bonneville (1837). These, though American in 
setting and coloring, being the results of Irving's tour in 
what was then the wild western frontier, just across the 
Mississippi, are the least valuable of all Irving's works. 
They were written largely to satisfy the popular demand 
for more work from Irving's pen. Their chief interest now 
lies in their historic record of the early frontier life. 

Biographical and historical works. The third class of 
Irving's writings really begins with his second distinct 
literary impulse — namely, that received from his sojourn in 
Spain. Here we find the ambitious biographies and his- 
torical narratives taking shape. In 1826 Irving was invited 
to Spain to undertake a translation of a new work. The Voy- 
ages of Columbus. When he reached Madrid, he found that 

7 



98 History oj American Literature 

this new book was not suited for translation; but nothing 
daunted, he began with prodigious energy to collect material 
for an original Life of Columbus. He found a great mass of 
documents ready to his hand, and in 1828 Murray published 
the three-volume Life of Columbus. This was the first of 
Irving's Spanish studies, and also his first effort in bio- 
graphical narrative. Then followed a number of other 
books dealing with Spanish history, among them The Con- 
quest of Granada (1829), Legend of the Conquest of Spain 
(1835), and Mahomet and His Successors (1850). The 
Alhambra has already been mentioned. 

Irving's "Life of Goldsmith." It was while he was in 
Spain also that Irving conceived the plan of writing his 
biographical masterpiece. The Life of Washington (1859), but 
it was not until after his second residence in Spain and his 
final return to America that he carried out this design. The 
one other biographical work which must not be omitted is 
The Life of Oliver Goldsmith (1849), published also after his 
final return to America. This is the most popular of all 
his biographies because it is briefer and probably more sym- 
pathetic in its treatment than either of the other two more 
extended studies. In fact, Goldsmith and Irving are similar 
in many respects. Each was good-natured and genial, each 
was more or less improvident and impecunious, — though - 
Irving succeeded in accumulating a competence toward the 
end of his life, — each remained unmarried through life, and 
each possessed a peculiarly harmonious and charming prose 
style. Moreover, the subject-matter of a good deal of their 
work is quite similar. Finally, each of them has been called 
the best -beloved author in his country. However, as 
Professor William P. Trent points out, Irving is not an 
imitator merely, but an original writer. "He is not an 
American Goldsmith; he is an Anglo-Saxon Irving." 

"Sunny side" Irving's home. Upon Irving's return to 
America in 1831 he thought he would settle down for a quiet 



loo History of American Literature 

and peaceful literary life. He bought an attractive estate 
on the Hudson and named it "Sunnyside," and here he 
made himself comfortable. His American publishers brought 
out a complete edition of his works, a venture which was 
undertaken with some hesitation, but which proved eminently 
successful, Irving himself receiving $88,000 in royalties before 
his death. 

Last visit to Europe: "Life of Washington.'' In . 1842 
he was appointed minister to Spain, an honor which he had 
abundantly earned, but one which he accepted almost as 
a burden because it took him away from his home. He 
gladly relinquished his post in 1846 and came back to 
America to complete his last literary work. The Life of 
Washington. He was feted and sought after and honored 
in many ways by his admirers. But he was growing tired 
of- it all, and his only hope now was that he might "go 
down with all sail set." He died at "Sunnyside," Novem- 
ber 28, 1859, full of years and rich in love and honors. His 
tomb overlooks Sleepy Hollow and the majestic river which 
he loved and over which he has thrown the glamour of 
romance and literary legend.^ 

James Fenimore Cooper. Almost since his very first 
appearance as an author James Fenimore Cooper (1789- 
1851) has been called "The American Scott," but as Lowell 
long ago intimated, the comparison is much to the American 
author's disadvantage. It is true that Scott was the inspira- 
tion of some of the best of Cooper's creative work, and it is 
also true that there is a certain similarity between these 
authors in their love of outdoor life, adventure, and exciting 
action; in largeness and sweep rather than delicacy and 
finish of style; and in the final effects of their romances on 
the imagination of their readers. But in his power of 

1 The standard life of Irving is that by Pierre Irving in three volumes. 
The biographies by Charles Dudley Warner and H. W. Boynton in the 
American Men of Letters and the Riverside Biographical Series respectively 
are excellent shorter studies. 




JAMES FENIMORE COOPER 



I02 History of American Literature 

reproducing past ages of history, in his wonderful array of 
original character creations, and in the structural com- 
pleteness and final artistic charm of his romances, Scott far 
and awa}^ surpasses his American follower. 

General critical estimate. Cooper is undoubtedly the most 
uneven of our greater writers. He has done some things 
wonderfully well, but he has also produced some books of 
exceedingly little worth. Along with his excellences he dis- 
plays so many conspicuous faults as a stylist that there are 
some modern critics who feel inclined even to deny him a 
place among the major writers of America. It is true that 
his grammar is not always correct, that his diction is. some- 
times turgid and bombastic, and that there are many evi- 
dences of weakness in the general structural elements of his 
stories. It is also true that there is a lack of consistency, 
probability, and realism in his plots; and no one will deny 
that most of his characters, particularly his faultless 
"females," are more wooden and artificial than real flesh-and- 
blood men and women. However, when we consider the 
richness of Cooper's invention, the beauty, sweep, and power 
of his natural backgrounds, the energy displayed in his few 
great character creations, the originality and intense Ameri- 
canism of his major conceptions, and the interest-gripping 
power of his most successful tales, we must inevitably accept 
him not only as one of our pioneer writers but as one of our 
largest creative geniuses. 

Cooper's early life and education. The eleventh of the 
twelve children of William Cooper and Elizabeth Fenimore 
was born at Burlington, New Jersey, September 15, 1789, 
and christened James. After he had reached maturity, by 
an act of the New York legislature he assimied his mother's 
maiden name and has ever since been known as James 
Fenimore Cooper. Judge William Cooper owned a large 
estate on the shores of Otsego Lake in central New York, 
and when James was about a year old, Judge Cooper moved 



Artistic or Creative Period: New York Group 103 

into a home which he had built in the forests of his estate and 
named it " The Hall." Here, at what has since become Coop- 
erstown, the boy grew up and became familiarly acquainted 
with those wild, free scenes of the primeval wilderness 
which he was later to people with its aboriginal inhabitants, 
the creations of his own imagination, it is true, but based 
on actual observation of Indian and pioneer life as it was 
impressed on his childhood's memory. There was but little 
opportunity for formal education in this undeveloped terri- 
tory, and so Judge Cooper sent his children to the more 
thickly populated settlements for their schooling. James 
was sent to Albany for a year to be tutored for college. 
With a very inadequate preparation he entered Yale at the 
early age of thirteen. He apparently paid little attention 
to his academic duties, and in his third year he was dis- 
missed from the college. It is unfortunate that Cooper did 
not complete his education, for his style might have been 
greatly chastened and refined if he had submitted to the 
discipline of a careful literary training in his youth. Even 
after he left college he might have improved his style by 
practice and self-criticism if he had begun early enough ; but 
he was past thirty when he began to write, and so he was 
never able to overcome fully the handicap of his youthful 
neglect of educational opportunities. 

His experiences in the Navy. Judge Cooper, now a con- 
gressman, looked upon the navy as offering a promising 
career and certainly a good disciplinary training for his 
independent, self-willed, and adventurous son. Accord- 
ingly, at the time of the boy's dismissal from Yale, he secured 
a post for him on a merchantman and sent him to sea. 
This was the method of preliminary training for officers 
of the navy in the days before the founding of the naval 
academy at Annapolis. For nearly a year the young sailor 
stood the tests before the mast, traveling through the 
Straits of Gibraltar to Spain, returning by way of London, 



104 History of American Literature 

and crossing the Atlantic with all the experiences of storms, 
hardships, and excitements of those early days of pirates 
and freebooters. He then became a midshipman in the 
United States Navy, and for three years passed his life on 
board various ships, mostly on the Great Lakes, but also 
crossing the Atlantic in a visit to foreign ports. Of these 
early sea experiences we learn more from Cooper's sea tales 
than from any authentic records of his life during this period. 

Cooper an accidental author. In 1810 Cooper secured a 
year's leave of absence from the navy with the privilege of 
retiring permanently if he so desired. In 181 1, having in 
the meantime married Miss Susan De Lancey, he resigned 
his commission, and for the next ten years lived the life 
of a farmer, or country gentleman, on his father's and his 
father-in-law's estates. It was about 1820 that the interest- 
ing episode occurred which turned Cooper's life into literary 
channels. While reading a novel of English society life to 
his wife, he suddenly threw down the book in disgust, 
exclaiming that he could write a better novel himself. His 
wife challenged him to make good his boast, and under her 
encouragement Cooper produced within a short time a two 
volume novel, Precaution, a book which was a failure in 
everything except that it showed Cooper he really had a gift 
for writing. He knew little or nothing of English society, 
and so, as might have been foreseen, he did not succeed in 
portraying it. But when his friends encouraged him to try 
again, he turned in his next venture to an American subject 
and American scenery, and produced The Spy, the first 
widely successful American novel. 

Classification of his novels. Cooper's stories may be 
conveniently treated in three classes: (i) his historical tales, 
best represented by The Spy; (2) his sea tales, best repre- 
sented by The Pilot; and (3) the stories of Indian and pioneer 
life in the colonial days, best represented by the Leather- 
stocking Tales. 



Artistic or Creative Period: New York Group 105 

"The Spy." It was in 182 1 that, with some hesitancy 
and at his own financial risk, Cooper pubHshed his first 
important novel, The Spy. It is a tale of the Revolution, 
based upon the romantic exploits of the spy, Harvey Birch, 
a secret agent in. the confidence of Washington, but a man 
thoroughly hated and distrusted by the American patriots 
because he was in all outward appearances a British partisan. 
His marvelous adventures in the war, his intrepid and some- 
times reckless unconcern for his own safety, his astuteness 
and agility in extricating himself from perilous situations 
and all kinds of difficulties, his mysterious mission, his 
charmed life, and his unswerving patriotism and loyalty to 
the American cause make Harvey Birch one of the prime 
favorites in the gallery of American fictitious characters. 
So realistically are his adventures described that several 
persons have claimed to be the original from which the 
character was drawn, and not a few readers, even to this day, 
are convinced that Harv^ey Birch is a historical character. 
The Spy was not only widely read in America and England, 
but it was almost immediately translated into every impor- 
tant foreign language and read with delight by practically 
every court and capital of the world. Just as Lord Byron 
by his poetical romances is said to have carried English 
literature on a pilgrimage through Europe, so Cooper may 
be said to have been the first American who led American 
fiction on a pilgrimage through all Europe. Irving' s Sketch 
Book had blazed the way, particularly to English favor, 
but Cooper extended the path to every civilized country 
of Europe. Had Cooper written nothing else, The Spy 
alone is enough to give him a place in the roll of Ameri- 
can novelists. Its popularity has never waned, and it is 
perhaps true that this thrilling romance has as many readers 
today as it had during its first years of popular favor. 

Cooper's sea tales. The next book which Cooper pub- 
lished was The Pioneers (1823), the first of the famous 



io6 History of American Literature 

Leatherstocking Tales. But before taking up these, we 
shall consider another group of stories introduced by The 
Pilot, written in this same year but not published until so 
late in December that it is usually dated 1824. This was 
not only the first significant American sea tale, but in reality 
the first distinctively successful sea story in English litera- 
ture. Smollett, the eighteenth-century British novelist, 
had first shown in Roderick Random the possibilities of the 
sea as a new realm for romancers to conquer, but he had 
attracted few or no adventurers to follow him. Sir Walter 
Scott had just published The Pirate, a tale in which the sea 
naturally becomes prominent. On reading Scott's novel, 
which had been published anonymously, Cooper insisted 
that it was written by a landsman who knew very little 
about the sea from personal contact. His own experience in 
early life gave him peculiar advantages for the task which 
he now set himself, — namely, the writing of a book which 
should deal entirely with the ocean and present real sailors 
and realistic events lighted up with a touch of romance, so 
as to make the story a convincing presentation of life on 
the sea. The Pilot is based on the cruise of John Paul Jones, 
though nowhere in the story is the great Revolutionary 
sailor's name mentioned. It was a notable thing to intro- 
duce into a sea-tale such historical material, but still more 
notable was the creation of Long Tom Coffin, the rough, 
uncouth, superstitious, but faithful, honest, and loyal old 
tar. He stands with Harvey Birch, Natty Bumppo, and 
Chingachgook as one of the four greatest characters produced 
by Cooper's imagination. Cooper followed this first success 
in the romance of the sea by nine other sea tales, but it is 
perhaps unnecessary to recommend to young readers any of 
these except The Red Rover (1828) and The Two Admirals 
(1842). 

Cooper's success. The publication of the three great 
novels, l^he Spy, The Pioneers, and The Pilot, between 182 1 



Artistic or Creative Period: New York Group 107 

and 1824 had given Cooper's name to the world, but it was 
in 1826 that he reached the very acme of his fame by the 
publication of the second and the best of the Leatherstocking 
Tales, The Last oj the Mohicans. It has been confidently 
asserted that no American before or since has reached the 
world-wide popularity which he enjoyed at this time. Since 
1822 he had been living in New York City to obtain educa- 
tional advantages for his daughters and to be at the literary 
center of the country. He founded a club and was its 
acknowledged leader for several years. In fact, he was now 
something of a literary lion, and he felt distinctly the import- 
ance of his position as the most popular writer of his day. 
The poet Bryant in reporting a dinner to his wife wrote that 
Cooper "engrossed the whole conversation, and seems a 
little giddy with the great success his works have met with. " 

''The Last of the Mohicans.'' The scene of The Last of 
the Mohicans is the well-known wilderness of central New 
York where Cooper had spent his childhood. The conflict 
between the French and the English for the supremacy in 
America forms the historical background, and the vast 
forests and rivers and lakes the natural setting of the series 
of thrilling episodes which constitute the plot. Natty 
Bumppo, the famous scout, previously introduced as Leather- 
stocking in The Pioneers, is here presented in the prime of 
life and called Hawk-eye after the Indians' manner of 
designation. His friend Chingachgook, the stolid old 
Mohican chieftain, and the lithe and athletic Uncas, sorrow- 
fully called by Chingachgook "The Last of the Mohicans," 
and Magua, the treacherous Indian runner, a member of the 
Mohawk tribe and an enemy of the Mohicans, are among 
the chief character creations worthy of remembrance in this 
stirring romance of pioneer days in the American colonies. 

The Leatherstocking Tales. The best sequence in which 
to read the five Leatherstocking Tales now is not in the order 
in which they were written but that in which the life of Natty 



io8 History of American Literature 

Bumppo is presented chronologically in a sort of "drama in 
five acts." The Deerslayer (1841) shows the scout just 
merging into manhood; The Last of the Mohicans (1826) and 
The Pathfinder (1840) sliow him in the full vigor of middle 
life; The Pioneers (1823) presents him as already an old man, 
and in The Prairie (1827) his career terminates when he 
answers "Here!" to the last summons.^ Thus this heroic 
figure, the one great epic character in our literature, is fully 
drawn in these five romances. By common consent the 
series is now looked upon as America's greatest prose epic. 
Natty Bumppo, no matter by which of his four or five 
pseudonyms you call him, is undoubtedly one of the world's 
chief fictitious characters. It is perhaps not so much as a 
personality as the representative of a vanished era in Ameri- 
can history that he is valued. No matter how idealized 
the characters in these books may be, no matter how improb- 
able the romantic adventures described, no matter how 
inaccurate and inconsistent in minor details of plot and style, 
the Leatherstocking Tales form the truest epic of our early 
colonial life that the world possesses, and this great imagina- 
tive creation will surely hold its place in public regard long 
after all else that Cooper wrote is forgotten. 

Decline of Cooper's personal popularity. In 1826 Cooper, 
in the full flush of his popularity, went abroad with his 
family and remained for seven years, traveling in several of 
the European countries. During these years he began to write 
himself down almost as speedily as he had written himself up 
in the public regard. It is true that some of his great books 
were yet to be given to the world, but in the assumed role of 
defender of democratic institutions at all hazards, he soon 
won a number of enemies in aristocratic Europe; and on his 
return to America, having now been abroad long enough to 
recognize the shortcomings of his countrymen, he under- 

lA good device for remembering the titles in chronological order is to 
note that they come in alphabetic order: D-, L-, Pa-, Pi-, Pr-. 



Artistic or Creative Period: New York Group 109 

took the thankless task of reforming the nation by openly 
quarreling with it and castigating its follies. The result was 
that he became as severely hated as he had been previously 
extravagantly praised. He was mercilessly attacked in the 
press, and he promptly retorted by suing for libel every 
paper in which he had been lampooned. He had a dozen 
or more of these suits during this period, and almost invari- 
ably he conducted his own cases and won favorable verdicts. 
This soon brought his detractors to their senses, and he was 
thereafter less violently assailed in the public prints, but no 
less violently condemned in private. There is no doubt 
now, after the lapse of many years, that Cooper was at heart 
a loyal and devoted patriot, kind and tender in his family 
and personal relations, unswerving in his honesty, but unre- 
lenting in his prosecution of what appeared to him as ignor- 
ance and injustice. He was lacking in tact, grace, and 
diplomacy in dealing with individuals and the public, and 
hence he was an adept in what has been called by Whistler 
"the gentle art of making enemies." 

Cooper's decline in creative power. Naturally these con- 
tests embittered Cooper's later years and prevented him 
from advancing steadily in his creative work. He wrote 
some books that are still valued both as literary productions 
and as historical doctiments. His History of the United States 
Navy (1839), for example, was condemned as a partisan 
dociunent at the time, but it is now recognized as one of 
the important contributions to the history of our navy. For 
the most part, however. Cooper gave over his talents to the 
writing of severe criticisms and purpose novels, first espousing 
one cause and then another. His reputation brought him 
many readers for each new book, but the public soon learned 
to discredit these later productions, and today everybody 
realizes that it would have been much better for Cooper's 
fame if he had left unwritten at least two-thirds of the 
thirty-two separate novels which he published. 



no History of American Literature 

His service to our literature commemorated. Cooper finally- 
retired from New York City and made his permanent home 
at "The Hall" on Otsego Lake near Cooperstown. Here he 
died, September 14, 1851, having rounded out to the day 
his sixty-second year. A short time after the news of his 
death came, a few of his admirers and friends in New York 
City, realizing his great service to American letters, held a 
memorial service at which Daniel Webster and William 
CuUen Bryant delivered orations. At Cooperstown a 
majestic monument was later erected to his memory. It 
consists of a huge boulder of rough granite surmounted by 
the romantic figure of an Indian hunter in the attitude of 
the chase, bearing a bow in one hand and holding in his dog 
with the other. So after the "fretful stir unprofitable" of 
his later years, Cooper's body rests peacefully now in the 
midst of the country over which he threw the wonderful 
spirit of Indian romance. He was in many ways a worthy 
man, and his service to our literature cannot easily be over- 
estimated.^ 

William Cullen Bryant. William Cullen Bryant (1794- 
1878) has been called "The American Wordsworth," because 
he was most profoundly influenced by the teachings of that 
great English poet in making nature the most prominent 
object of his reflective musings. He is undoubtedly Amer- 
ica's greatest nature poet, just as Wordsworth is England's. 
He interpreted nature as he saw and knew it as a New Eng- 
land country boy; and while the application of his best 
poetry is universal, it was the American flowers, birds, and 
scenery that he painted, and the American point of view is 
everywhere evident. Bryant has also been called the 
first distinctively great American poet, the poet who first 
produced work recognized in England as in any way com- 
parable to that of the nineteenth-century English poets who 



1 The standard life of Cooper is that by Professor T. R. Lounsbury in 
the American Men of Letters Series of biographies. 



Artistic or Creative Period: New York Group iii 

were his contemporaries. The fact that the greatest of the 
EngHsh critics, Matthew Arnold, said that Bryant was 




WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT 



facile princeps among American poets and expressed his 
approval of Hartley Coleridge's judgment that "To a 



112 History of American Literature 

Waterfowl " was the best short poem in the EngKsh language, 
is proof enough that Bryant was at that early time recognized 
as a poet equal to Wordsworth, Coleridge, or Southey. 
We do not mean to say that Bryant is in any sense as great 
a poet as either of the first two of these, but he certainly 
ranks above the minor poets, where Southey must be 
classed. 

His precocity. Bryant was born November 3, 1794, in 
Cummington, a town in the Berkshire Hills of western 
Massachusetts. His father, Dr. Peter Bryant, was a de- 
scendant of good Puritan stock from the days of the first 
settlement at Plymouth; and his mother, Sarah Snell, was 
likewise descended from a famous Puritan family, that of 
John and Priscilla Alden, whom Longfellow has immor- 
talized in "The Courtship of Miles Standish." Dr. Bryant 
was a cultured man and an ardent Federalist, and he took 
pains to educate his children in both literary and political 
lines after his own ideals. William Cullen was a remarkably 
precocious child. It is authoritatively stated that he 
learned his alphabet at sixteen months, wrote poetry at 
nine years, translated Latin verses at ten, composed political 
satires at thirteen, and wrote the first draft of "Thana- 
topsis," which has since been recognized as an American 
if not a world masterpiece, before he was seventeen. It 
must be remembered in contemplating this last marvelous 
performance, however, that " Thanatopsis " had frequent 
revisions before it reached its present final form, and that 
the finest portions of the poem were added when Bryant had 
reached his twenty-seventh year. When he was five years 
old, the boy was sent to live with his grandfather Snell in 
order that he might attend school. The poet himself tells 
us that he was "almost an infallible speller," and one of the 
fleetest runners in school. His precocity made it seem 
profitable to give him a college education, and so he was 
sent to his maternal uncle to begin the study of Latin, and 



Artistic or Creative Period: New York Group 113 

then to the Reverend Moses Hallock's preparatory school at 
Plainfield to begin Greek. He soon mastered both these' 
ancient languages. His conquest of the difficult Greek was 
wonderfully rapid, for he tells us that within two months 
from the time he began with the Greek alphabet he had 
read through the New Testament in the original and was 
almost as familiar with it as with the English translation. 
Usually such precocity indicates early maturity and rapid 
decline of powers, but when we remember that Bryant 
retained his powers through a long and active journalistic 
life, and at the age of eighty was still producing excellent 
poetry, we are all the more astounded at this recital of his 
early development. 

His young manhood and marriage. At sixteen Bryant 
entered Williams College and remained one year. He was 
disappointed in the educational advantages offered at 
Williams College, and with his father's consent he planned 
to transfer to Yale College the next year. When the time 
came for him to leave for Yale, however, his father's strait- 
ened finances would not permit of further college training, 
and Bryant reluctantly gave up his cherished ambition and 
turned to the study of law. He read law in two private 
offices, and was admitted to the bar in 181 5. For nine years 
he practiced his profession diligently but not enthusiastically, 
beginning at Plainfield where he had once attended school, 
but shortly afterwards removing to Great Barrington, a 
more promising town near by. Here he met and married 
Miss Frances Fairchild, and she proved to be what he called 
the good angel of his life. During this period he addressed 
several poems to her, but preserved only one of them in 
his printed volumes — "The Fairest of the Rural Maids," 
which Poe called "the truest poem written by Bryant." 
Later poems touch upon his beautiful attachment for her, such 
as "The Life That Is," which celebrates her recovery from 
an illness, and "October, 1866," which mourns her death. 



114 History of American Literature 

Bryant as an editor. It was in 1825 that Bryant finally 
gave- up the practice of law, which had always been dis- 
tasteful to him, ^nd turned to journalism as a career. He 
was appointed to be editor of a monthly literary periodical 
called The New York Review. After a short and checkered 
career this journal was merged with others, and Bryant 
became assistant editor of The New York Evening Post. 
Within a short time the editor-in-chief died, and Bryant 
was promoted to this position. He made The Evening Post 
the best edited newspaper in New York, and he soon attained 
a controlling financial interest in this great daily, so that he 
was from this time on a comparatively wealthy man. In 
his youth, under the tuition and inspiration of his father, 
who was a staunch Federalist, Bryant had written and 
published "The Embargo," a severe satire on the Democratic 
president, Thomas Jefferson. It seems like a stroke of -the 
irony of fate that in later life he should become the chief 
editorial writer and owner of a great Democratic journal. 
In his new position he was an influential spokesman for 
high political and moral ideals, and be became quite dis- 
tinguished, not as an impassioned orator, but as a maker of 
elevated and finished addresses on many historic and literary 
occasions. 

His visits to Europe. Bryant traveled mvich during his. 
later years, making no fewer than seven visits abroad. 
While he was not received with the eclat that greeted some 
of our later literary men in their visits to Europe, he was 
everywhere recognized as a man of distinction, and he had 
the unfailing good taste not to parade his own social success 
nor to betray the hospitality of his entertainers by writing 
about them in his letters. He contributed travel letters to 
his paper during these trips, and afterwards collected the 
best of these in a volume called Letters of a Traveler. 

Bryant's best poems. Bryant's career as a recognized poet 
began as early |_as 181 7 with his father's presentation of 



Artistic or Creative Period: New York Group 115 

"Thanatopsis" and "A Fragment" (later called "Inscription 
for the Entrance to a Wood") to the editors of The North 
American Review. The story of the amazement of these 
men at the character of the verse, — no such poetry having 
hitherto been produced on this side of the Atlantic, — has 
been frequently told. The genesis of "To a Waterfowl," 
written after Bryant observed a lone mallard flying to its 
rest just at sunset, is also well known. In "Thanatopsis" 
and "To a Waterfowl" Bryant undoubtedly reached his 
highest altitude as a poet. The first is a moralizing blank 
verse poem on the theme of death and is developed with a 
rich nature setting ; the second is a nature lyric based on the 
solemn religious thought that the providence of God directs 
every human life. Death and nature were the two themes 
that most frequently attracted the poet's muse, and we may 
safely affirm that no other American poet has equaled him 
in his treatment of these solemn and inspiring subjects. 
Though Bryant never surpassed these early efforts, some 
critics hold that he sustained the reputation made in his early 
years, even when he became an octogenarian. In 182 1 he 
published his first thin volume of poems, and in 1832 a 
second and enlarged edition appeared, the most notable of 
the additional poems being "A Forest Hymn," "To the 
Fringed Gentian," "Song of Marion's Men," and "Death 
of the Flowers." The last named poem opens with the 
familiar lines, 

The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year, 

Of wailing winds, and naked woods, and meadows brown and sere, 

and closes with a beautiful tribute to his beloved sister, who 
had died in the sutumn. Other editions of the poems 
appeared from time to time, and by 1864 Bryant had 
garnered a considerable volume of poems, though he was 
not so prolific as most of our major poets. "The Prairies," 
a poem full of the breadth and sweep of our western plains; 



ii6 History of American Literature 

"The Battlefield," in which occurs the most frequently 
quoted passage in all his poetry, 

Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again; 
Th' eternal years of God are hers; 
But Error, wounded, writhes in pain, 
And dies among his worshipers; 

"Oh Mother of a Mighty Race," a patriotic tribute to 
America; "Robert of Lincoln," an imitative bird song 
entirely different in tone from anything else Bryant wrote; 
"Sella" and "The Little People of the Snow," two fairy 
pieces; and "The Flood of Years," a reversion to the theme 
and manner of " Thanatopsis " when the poet was eighty- 
two, ^ — these are perhaps the best of his later productions. 

Byrant's translations of the "Iliad" and "Odyssey." As 
a relief from his grief over the death of his wife in 1866, 
Bryant turned to the translation of the Iliad and the Odyssey. 
He had previously translated some portions of the fifth 
book of the Odyssey, but he now set seriously about convert- 
ing the whole of the two great Homeric epics into blank 
verse. This remarkable achievement, begun when he was 
seventy- two and completed when he was seventy-seven, 
may be placed with Longfellow's translation of Dante's 
Divina Commedia and Bayard Taylor's of Goethe's Faust 
as one of the three greatest translations produced in' 
America, works which rank high among the best of this 
kind in all English literature. 

His death and burial. Bryant died on June 12, 1878. 
During the last years of his life he was many times called 
the first citizen of the republic. His life was pure and noble, 
and he well deserved the encomiums that were spoken and 
written of him all over the country. He was undoubtedly 
a great and good man. Nature, whom he loved so well and 
interpreted so beautifully, had made him one of her own 
noblemen. He was buried at Roslyn, Long Island, where 
he owned an estate and where his wife was buried twelve 



Artistic or Creative Period: New York Group 117 

years before. An excellent statue ensconced in a tasteful 
classic arch has been erected to the poet's memory in the 
New York Public Library. 

General critical estimate of Bryant. It has been customary, 
since Lowell's criticism of Bryant in "A Fable for Critics," 
to speak of Bryant's coldness and lack of passion. It is 
undoubtedly true that there is a lack of enthusiastic passion 
or demonstrative sentiment in his poetry, but it would be 
more accurate to call his style restrained and classic than 
stiff and frigid. Bryant was a man of deep feeling, but he 
was naturally reserved in disposition, and he controlled his 
feelings with that perfect poise, self-restraint, and repose 
which is characteristic of the classic poets at their best. He 
was a devoted son, husband, and father, a loyal friend, and 
a patriotic citizen. There is certainly a note of tender 
delicacy, genuine warmth, and deep spirituality in much of 
his poetry. Among some modern critics, too, there is a 
tendency to belittle Bryant's poetical genius because of the 
evident didacticism, the serious ethical purpose, and the 
melancholy note in much of his verse. It is very true that 
these elements exist in his poetry, and perhaps to the modem 
artistic temperament there is a too patent moral note and 
a too constant melancholy or sober tone in his best poems. 
But this was the natural tendency of his genius; and even 
if the range of his muse was not wide, he has certainly ex- 
pressed himself well in his chosen domain. None of our 
pioets has better expressed the fundamental seriousness and 
the sober delight in noble ethical ideals of the Anglo-Saxon 
race, and we may safely predict that the best of Bryant's 
poetry, as represented in " Thanatopsis " and "To a Water- 
fowl," will be read long after much that is now held in high 
esteem by his detractors shall have passed into oblivion.^ 

1 The standard life of Bryant is that by his son-in law, Parke Godwin. 
Two more recent and somewhat briefer studies are those by John Bigelow 
in the American Men of Letters Series and W. A. Bradley in the English 
Men of Letters Series. 



ii8 History of American Literature 

Walt Whitman. Walt Whitman (i 8 19-1892), "The 
Good Gray Poet," was during his lifetime a literary storm 
center, and even yet his name cannot be mentioned in any 
circle of readers without bringing forth both a paean of 
praise and a chorus of condemnation. Some one has called 
him the best loved and the best hated of all our writers. He 
had a desperately hard struggle to gain a hearing, but he 
persisted with a supreme and undisturbed patience and self- 
confidence, and triumphed in the end. As time goes on, 
his figure looms larger and larger on the literary horizon, 
so that there are many who now recognize in this so-called 
sensual, self-vaunting, unlettered hoodlum of Manhattan, 
the one universally great literary genius produced by Ameri- 
can democracy. 

Whitman's early life. Whitman was born May 31, 1819, 
at the old family homestead. West Hills, near Huntington, 
Long Island. His ancestors were of the simple, unlettered 
farming and seafaring classes, and made little pretension to 
material prosperity' or social standing. Whitman was 
always unfeignedly proud of his htimble origin, for he knew 
that he came from a plain, strong, virile, healthy, American 
stock, and thus, as a true son of the soil, he might claim to 
be the appointed poet of democracy. 

Starting from fish-shape Paumanok where I was born, 
Well-begotten, and raised by a perfect mother, 

he says; and again. 

My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air, 
Bom here of parents born here, from parents the same, and their 
parents the same. 

In this old home on Long Island, or Paumanok, as he loved 
to call it, the child lived until he was four years old, absorbing 
even at this age the rural sights and sounds, the vigor and 
freshness of the salt sea air, and the power and constancy 




WALT WHITMAN 



I20 History of American Literature 

of the ocean. Truly the sea was "the cradle endlessly- 
rocking" for this child of Nature. During Walter's fifth 
year, his father removed to Brooklyn to engage in the 
builder's trade, but the boy still had free access to the 
ancestral home and to the wild and unfrequented parts of 
the island. There are hundreds of allusions that prove 
Whitman to have been much more of a country-bred than 
a city-bred boy. 

The period of Whitman s self -development. His education 
in the public schools of Brooklyn closed when he was thirteen. 
He began now to help earn his own bread by working in a 
lawyer's ofhce as an errand boy. He soon entered upon an 
apprenticeship to the printer's trade, however, and until 
his seventeenth year found employment in various capacities 
in printing establishments. Then for two or three years he 
taught country schools on Long Island, boarding around, as 
was the custom, and familiarizing himself with the life of 
the common people. He was a prime favorite with old 
and young, playing ball with the boys and engaging in his 
favorite sport of fishing as opportunity afforded. It is said 
that he succeeded admirably as a teacher, using a sort of 
oral method of his own invention, and commanding always 
the respect and affection of his pupils and patrons. Then he 
opened a printing office at Huntington and founded a weekly 
paper. The Long Islander. His success in this venture was 
not pronounced, and the paper soon changed hands, but this 
was the beginning of his career as a journalist. He now 
contributed sentimental sketches and stories to some of the 
New York papers, and worked in a desultory sort of way at 
his trade of printing. This was his fallow or "loafing" 
period, as he called it. He was studying men and women 
in real life with all the intensity and constancy of application 
that many another youth puts on his college course. The 
city streets and the country lanes, filled with all sorts and 
conditions of life, were Walt Whitman's university. 



Artistic or Creative Period: New York Group 121 

Period of further development through travel and reading. 
Whitman was progressing slowly in his chosen field of jour- 
nalism, and in 1848 he became editor of The Brooklyn Eagle, 
a daily paper of some importance. About this time a gentle- 
man from the South offered him an editorial position on a 
newly founded daily, The Crescent, in New Orleans, and 
Whitman accepted the position because it would give him an 
opportunity to see something of America. With his younger 
brother Jeff he made a leisurely trip down the Mississippi, 
learning much from these new sights and experiences. He 
did not remain long in the South, and we find him again 
making a leisurely working tour back to New York and 
Brooklyn by way of St. Louis, Chicago, Niagara, and 
Albany. On this journey of eight thousand miles he was 
formulating some conception of the sweep and grandeur of 
the land he loved and was to sing so well. He was still taking 
life easy, still in his fallow period. "I loaf and invite my 
soul," he wrote later in the "Song of Myself." He worked 
but little at his regular business, but spent many hours in 
loitering around the streets, riding on the tops of cabs, 
talking and consorting with all sorts and types of people, 
taking long solitary walks in the woods and swims in the 
Sound, and letting his imagination brood over all. Besides, 
he was doing much serious reading of the Bible, Shakespeare, 
and other English and classical writers. 

''Leaves of Grass." Whitman's real ambition to become 
a poet was slowly ripening, and with a kind of solitary 
persistence he kept brooding over his mission and working 
surely, steadily, unobtrusively into that style which he 
afterwards flashed upon the world as a new and original 
type of poetry. In 1855, set up and printed largely by 
himself in the office of some friends, appeared the first edition 
of Leaves of Grass, the strangest, most misunderstood, most 
maligned book that ever came from the American press. 
It was like Carlyle's Sartor Resartus in England, a work of 



12 2 History of American Literature 

genius, hooted and hissed and misinterpreted until some 
knowing ones expounded the riddle. Leaves oj Grass was 
written in a kind of unrimed free verse, with lines of from 
four or five to sixty or even seventy syllables arranged in a 
sort of phrasal rhythm to suit the ear or the caprice of the 
author. Whether it is verse or rhythmical prose is still 
debated. It is certain that there is no other verse like it, 
and it is also certain that the long prose preface is almost 
as rhythmical as any other part of the book. Whitman 
himself admitted much later, when some of the earlier faults 
had been removed, that he consciously threw out all the 
conventional machinery of verse, "the entire stock in trade of 
rhyme-talking heroes and heroines and all the love-sick 
plots of customary poetry." He constructed his verse "in 
a loose and free metre of his own, of an irregular length of 
lines, apparently lawless at first perusal, although on a closer 
examination a certain regularity appears, like the recur- 
rence of lesser and larger waves on the sea-shore, rolling in 
without intermission, and fitfully rising and falling." 
Readers have almost universally testified that Whitman's 
verse seems most like real poetry when read aloud out-of- 
doors, and particularly under the waving trees or by the 
throbbing sea, with the drift of clouds and the swoop of 
sea-birds over head. His whole aim was to be himself and 
no other, to be original and no imitator, to be the spokes- 
man of his own soul and of democratic America, and 
not an echo of the dead muses of other times and other 
nations. 

How ''Leaves of Grass'' was received. Whitman succeeded 
in his aim — succeeded so well in writing an entirely new 
book that when it appeared it was called "the work of some 
escaped lunatic, " and the author was belabored as one whose 
soul was the reincarnation of "a donkey who died of dis- 
appointed love." Lowell could never overcome his disgust 
for the author of Leaves of Grass (1855), Whittier threw the 



Artistic or Creative Period: New York Group 123 

book in the fire when he read it, but Emerson saw in it dis- 
tinct evidences of genius and wrote the author a letter which 
has been frequently reprinted. This letter was the first note 
of authoritative recognition which Whitman received and the 
impetus from which his fame has grown. In it Emerson 
said in part: "I find it [Leaves of Grass] the most extra- 
ordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet 
' contributed. ... I give you joy of your free and brave 
thought. I have great joy in it. I find incomparable 
things said incomparably well, as they must be. I find the 
courage of treatment which so delights us, and which large 
perception only can inspire. I greet you at the beginning 
of a great career, which yet must have had a long fore- 
ground somewhere for such a start. ... It has the best 
merits, namely of fortifying and encouraging. " 

Other editions of "Leaves of Grass." The next year the 
second and greatl^i enlarged edition of Leaves of Grass 
appeared with appended additional matter containing 
Emerson's letter and Whitman's long reply. In spite of 
Emerson's generous recognition of a new light, the book did 
not sell. In England the recognition was more spontaneous 
though not enough interest was manifested greatly to encour- 
age the new poet. But Whitman needed no encouragement 
— at least he was not be to daunted by discouragement. 
He had determined to have his own way, and neither praise 
nor blame, encouragement nor discouragement seemed to 
deflect him in the least from his purpose. Years later he 
wrote, "The best comfort of the whole business. ... is 
that unstopp'd and unwarp'd by any influence outside the 
soul within me, I have had my say entirely in my own way 
and put it unerringly on record — the value thereof to be 
decided by time." He did not bid for "soft eulogies, big 
money returns, nor the approbation of existing schools and 
conventions"; and so he moved on his way unruffled and 
undisturbed. The third edition of his book appeared in 



124 History of American Literature 

i860 with many changes and additions, as was his custom; 
and in 1891 the tenth and last edition of this remarkable 
poetic evolution was prepared by the poet, some of it passing 
through his hands even after he had taken to his bed for the 
last time. 

Whitman as a hospital nurse during ike war. The Civil 
War was the culminating experience in Walt Whitman's 
education as the poet of democracy. He did not volunteer 
for active service, but his brother George did, and when 
Walt heard that George was wounded and in a hospital in 
Virginia he went to the front. Finding his brother already 
recovered, but thousands of others in the hospitals needing 
comfort and aid, he became a volunteer nurse in and around 
Washington. It is said that he literally came into touch 
with thousands of soldiers while on his rounds, and served 
them all alike, whether Northern or Southern, high or low, 
deserving or undeserving, with an unswerving and all- 
encompassing devotion. He was a strong, clean, healthy, 
magnetic specimen of manhood; and his very presence 
seemed a benediction and a curative power to the sick and 
wounded soldiers. 

Employment in Washington City: "The Good Gray Poet." 
After the war Whitman was given a clerkship in the Depart- 
ment of the Interior, and later he was transferred to the 
Attorney-General's department. It was about this time 
that W. D. O'Connor, an over-enthusiastic admirer of 
Whitman, published a pamphlet defending the poet from 
certain attacks made on him, and from the title of this 
pamphlet Whitman became familiarly known as ' ' The Good 
Gray Poet." 

"Drum Taps'': His broken health. It was just at the 
close of the Civil War that Whitman published a new volume 
of poems called Drum Taps, and when the volume was going 
through the press he composed four poems which he called 
"Memorials for President Lincoln," and added them as a 



Artistic or Creative Period: New York Group 125 

supplement. This volume contains some of Whitman's 
very finest work, notably the threnody "When Lilacs Last 
in the Dooryard Bloom'd" and the lyric lament "O Captain! 
My Captain!" From time to time other poems and prose 
pieces came out, but Whitman's health was now rapidly 
failing, and in 1873 he suffered a paralytic stroke and had 
to give up his position in Washington. He went to Cam- 
den, New Jersey, and lived with his brother for a few years 
until he partially recovered his health. During the remain- 
der of his life he lectured occasionally on Lincoln, made 
journeys to the far West and to Canada, and was the recip- 
ient of many visits from friends and admirers. His books 
now brought him in some money, and he was enabled to 
buy a modest little home at Camden. Here, even though 
broken in health, he spent his last days in quiet. He had 
what he most craved, the comradeship and good-fellowship 
of those who understood and loved him. In 1888 he suffered 
the second stroke of paralysis, and from this time until his 
death, March 26, 1892, he was practically a helpless invalid. 
But up to the very last he retained his buoyancy of spirit 
and alertness of mind. 

Whitman's message and personality. As to Whitman's 
message in his poetry, his great themes were selfhood, com- 
radeship, love, joy, nature, God, immortality, death, and 
above all democracy as exemplified in the American states. 
Edward Holmes analyzes Whitman as being intensely emo- 
tional, intensely self-conscious, intensely optimistic, and 
intensely American. We might add to this the one all- 
inclusive characteristic, and say he was intensely human. 
No one ever lived who was more normally and unmistakably 
a man. Lincoln's remark squares true with every atom of 
his being: "Well, he looks like a man!" The only serious 
weakness to be observed in his poetical output is that it is 
not always inspired. Wordsworth defined poetry as "the 
spontaneous overflow of powerful emotion recollected 



126 History of American Literature 

in tranquillity." Whitman's poetry seems spontaneous 
enough, but it does not always express powerful emotion. 
Like Wordsworth, he was rather self-conscious and imagined 
that everything he felt and saw and thought or dreamed was 
worthy of preservation. And so, like Wordsworth again, 
he sometimes reaches banality instead of inspiration. The 
logical evolution of some of his poems is vague or even 
totally indistinguishable. He injects topics that seem 
utterly foreign to his purpose, and gives long catalogues 
of names and conglomerate masses of facts that can only be 
properly designated by the term "balderdash." 

Whitman's rank and influence. And yet when we look back 
on Whitman, now that more than a quarter of a century 
has passed since his death, we can begin to place him in 
his true historic perspective. There is no doubt that he 
was one of the largest-brained, biggest -hearted men of his 
century. He had little or no formal education; and yet 
without model or foreign influence, when he felt the stirrings 
of genius within him he made his own instrument of expres- 
sion merely by the rule of doing it. We may say that Walt 
Whitman was a born poetical genius who found his own 
almost formless vehicle of expression at thirty-five, and tried 
to perfect himself in it by inflicting it on an unprepared 
public for the next thirty-five years. Whitman is not a. 
broadly popular poet and perhaps never will be, for his 
work as a whole offers too strong a meat and is too funda- 
mental and cosmic for the general public. But he has pro- 
foundly influenced many of our later writers; in fact, he 
may be placed next to Emerson in his power of stimulating 
other minds. There is no longer any question as to his 
genius or as to the elemental purity and goodness of his 
nature.^ 



1 Among the many lives of Whitman, perhaps the best for general use are 
those by Bliss Perry in the American Men of Letters Series and by George R. 
Carpenter in the English Men of Letters Series. Two other sympathetic 
books should be consulted, the studies by John Addington Symons (English) 
and John Burroughs (American). 



Artistic or Creative Period: New York Group 127 

THE MINOR NEW YORK AND MIDDLE ATLANTIC 
STATES POETS 

The grouping of the minor poets. Besides Bryant and 
Whitman who are treated above as major New York 
poets, there are three minor poets who are usuaUy classed 
as Knickerbocker poets, — namely, Fitz-Greene Halleck, 
Joseph Rodman Drake, and Nathaniel Parker Willis. 
Following these in the latter half of the century come two 
comparatively important poets and prose writers. Bayard 
Taylor and Edmund Clarence Stedman. Finally, Richard 
Hovey may be singled out as a representative figure among 
the younger poets who made the city of New York their 
residence during the later years of the century. These 
with other song writers and minor poets comprise the list 
of the most important verse makers of the Middle Atlantic 
States group. 

Halleck and Drake: "The Croakers." Fitz-Greene 
Halleck (1790- 1867) was born in Connecticut, but came 
to New York in his twenty-second year to enter business. 
He had secured a fairly good education in his youth and had 
taught school in New England a year or two before he 
removed to New York. He was intensely interested in the 
new poetry of the early nineteenth century as it appeared 
under the democratic and romantic impulses which swept 
over England. Thomas Campbell and Lord Byron were 
his especial favorites at the time he met Joseph Rodman 
Drake (i 795-1820), a young New York physician. The 
two writers have become inseparably associated in literature 
because they wrote together some playful satires in a series 
of light verses which they published during a period of 
three months in 18 19, mainly in The New York Evening Post, 
under the signature of "The Croakers," or "Croaker and 
Company." 

Drake's "The Culprit Fay." Drake was attacked by 
constimption and died at the early age of twenty-five. He 



128 * History of American Literature 

left in manuscript a romantic poem called "The Culprit 
Fay," a remarkable piece of work dashed off in the brief 
space of three days during the summer of 1816, but not 
published until several years after his death. It is the 
story of a fairy knight who fell in love with a mortal maiden 
and was doomed to suffer various penalties because of this 
breaking of fairy law. The poem is an unusual production 
for so young a man, for Drake was only twenty-one when 
he wrote it. Because of its lack of the careful organization, 
the well defined evolution that art demands of long imag- 
inative poems of its kind, "The Culprit Fay" is not of any 
great permanent value. It is full of pleasing fanciful 
descriptions, however, and it has a decidedly attractive lilt 
in its rhythm. Also in its aim to people the American woods 
and streams with a company of fairies and to create a native 
supernatural background, the poem is distinctly noteworthy. 
The influence of English fairy lore, such as is found in Shake- 
speare's and Herrick's descriptions of Queen Mab and her 
court, and in Coleridge's " Christabel, " is easily discernible; 
but despite these evidences of foreign influence Drake shows 
considerable originality and great promise in this fanciful 
field of fairyland. 

" The American Flag. " One other poem by Drake is still 
frequently read,^ — ^ namely, his intensely patriotic lyric, 
"The American Flag." This song, though unfortunately 
not set to a popular tune, should be classed with Timothy 
Dwight's "Columbia," Francis Hopkinson's "Hail, Colum- 
bia, " and Francis Scott Key's "The Star-Spangled Banner, " 
as one of the choicest of our patriotic lyrics. The note- 
worthy fact about this poem is that it was not written in 
any period of war or unusual political excitement, being 
first published as one of the "Croaker" papers in 18 19, 
and hence it is universal in its appeal to Americans and 
is appropriate to any period of our history. The lyric 
is given here in full. 



Artistic or Creative Period: New York Group 129 

THE AMERICAN FLAG 
I 
When Freedom from her mountain height 

Unfurled her standard to the air, 
She tore the azure robe of night, 

And set the stars of glory there. 
She mingled with its gorgeous dyes 
The milky baldric of the skies. 
And striped its pure celestial white, 
With streakings of the morning light; 
Then from his mansion in the sun 
She called her eagle bearer down. 
And gave into his mighty hand, 
The symbol of her chosen land. 

II 

Majestic monarch of the cloud. 

Who rear'st aloft thy regal form, 
To hear the tempest trumpings loud 
And see the lightning lances driven, 

When strive the warriors of the storm, 
And rolls the thunder-drum of heaven. 
Child of the sun! to thee 'tis given 

To guard the banner of the free, 
To hover in the sulphur smoke. 
And bid its blendings shine afar, 
Like rainbows of the cloud of war, 

The harbingers of victory! 

Ill 
Flag of the brave ! thy folds shall fly, 
The sign of hope and triumph high, 
When speaks the signal trumpet tone. 
And the long line comes gleaming on. 
Ere yet the life-blood, warm and wet. 
Has dimm'd the glistening bayonet, 
Each soldier eye shall brightly turn 
To where thy sky-born glories burn. 
And as his springing steps advance, 
Catch war and vengeance from the glance. 
And when the cannon-mouthings loud 
Heave in wild wreaths the battle shroud. 



130 History oj American Literature 

And gory sabres rise and fall 

Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall; 

Then shall thy meteor glances glow, 

And cowering foes shall shrink beneath 
Each gallant arm that strikes below 

That lovely messenger of death. 

IV 
Flag of the seas! on ocean wave 
Thy stars shall glitter o'er the brave; 
When death, careering on the gale, 
Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail. 
And frighted waves rush wildly back 
Before the broadside's reeling rack, 
Each dying wanderer of the sea 
Shall look at once to heaven and thee, 
And smile to see thy splendours fly 
In triumph o'er his closing eye. 

V 
Flag of the free heart's hope and home. 

By angel hands to valour given; 
The stars have lit the welkin dome. 

And all thy hues were bom in heaven. 
Forever float that standard sheet! 

Where breathes the foe but falls before us. 
With Freedom's soil beneath our feet, 

And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us? 

Halleck's Popular Poems. Though Drake seemed to 
give more promise of developing into a first-rate poet, 
Halleck lived longer and reached a wider popular audience. 
His best known lyric is the lament he wrote upon the death 
of his dear friend Drake, the first stanza of which remains 
familiar through popular quotation: 

Green be the turf above thee. 

Friend of my better days; 
None knew thee but to love thee, 

None named thee but to praise. 

One other piece by Halleck, well known because it was 
formerly extremely popular as a declamation, is his "Marco 



Artistic or Creative Period: New York Group 131 

Bozzaris, " a patriotic narrative poem dealing with the 
Greek struggle to throw off the hated sovereignty of Turkey. 
It will be remembered that Byron — who, by the way, 
exerted a strong influence on Halleck, as is evidenced both 
by the quality of "Marco Bozzaris" and by Halleck's long 
poem "Fanny," a satire on New York society written in 
imitation of Byron's " Don Juan, " — lost his life in his efforts 
to aid the Greek patriots. "Marco Bozzaris" opens with 
the lines: 

At midnight, in his guarded tent. 

The Turk was dreaming of the hour 
When Greece, her knee in suppliance bent, 

Should tremble at his power; 

contains in its climax the fiery lines, 

Strike — till the last armed foe expires! 
Strike — for your altars and your fires! 
Strike — for the green graves of your sires, ' 
God, and your native land! 

and concludes, after the death of the hero, with the often 
quoted passage. 

For thou art Freedom's now and Fame's, 
One of the few, the immortal names 
That were not born to die. 

N. P. Willis. Nathaniel Parker Wilhs (1806-186 7) belongs 
to that group of authors who enjoy wide popularity in 
their lifetime only to be speedily neglected or forgotten 
by posterity. He was born in Portland, Maine, was edu- 
cated at Yale, and started his journalistic career in Boston; 
but he early came to New York to become one of the editors 
of The New York Mirror; and through this periodical and 
other New York literary journals he built up his wide influ- 
ence and reputation as a poet, critic, and writer of tales, 
sketches, and travel pictures. He also wrote one novel, two 



132 History of American Literature 

dramas, and several ambitious longer poems. His early 
poems were mostly on Bible subjects, as represented by 
" David's Lament for Absalom, " "Hagar in the Wilderness, " 
and "Jephtha's Daughter," and these naturally gave Willis 
a wide vogue among the deeply religious Americans of his 
day. But posterity has almost entirely neglected all that 
he wrote except one chance lyric called "Unseen Spirits," 
which Poe called the best of Willis's productions. Willis 
possessed a charming personality and was a genial patron of 
literature. He deserves to be remembered for the encour- 
agement he offered to young American writers and for the 
impetus he gave to the appreciation of good literature 
among all classes. 

Bayard Taylor: his poetry. Another poet of the middle 
states to be remembered as one who rose almost to the 
first rank of creative writers and certainly to the first rank 
of poetical translators is Bayard Taylor (182 5-1 8 78). He 
was born in Pennsylvania, and began at an early age to 
compose verse, a volume of which he published before he 
was twenty. Being possessed of a strong desire to go abroad, 
he undertook, at the age of nineteen, practically without 
money, to travel on foot throughout Europe. His news- 
paper travel letters were so well received that he published 
a volume of them in 1846 under the title of Views Afoot. 
This book gave him a considerable reputation as a pleasing 
prose stylist, and he was in consequence employed as a 
member of the staff of The New York Tribune. He later 
traveled practically all over the eastern world, writing long 
descriptive letters, many of which he afterwards collected 
into books. The best of his original poetry perhaps is that 
inspired by the Orient; most of this he gathered together 
in the volume entitled Poems of the Orient (1854). The 
"Bedouin Song," the most noteworthy perhaps of Taylor's 
shorter poems, is worthy of complete quotation as an 
example of his lyric gift at its best. 



Artistic or Creative Period: New York Group 133 

BEDOUIN SONG 
From the Desert I come to thee 

On a stallion shod with fire; 
And the winds are left behind 

In the speed of my desire. 
Under thy window I stand, 

And the midnight hears my cry: 
I love thee! I love but thee, 
With a love that shall not die 
Till the sun grows cold, 
A nd the stars are old, 
And the leaves of the Judgment Book unfold! 

Look from thy window and see 

My passion and my pain; 
I lie on the sands below. 

And I faint in thy disdain. 
Let the night-winds touch thy brow 

With the heat of my burning sigh. 
And melt thee to hear the vow 

Of a love that shall not die 
Till the sun grows cold, 
And the stars are old, 
And the leaves of the Judgment Book unfold 

]VIy steps are nightly driven. 

By the fever in my breast, 
To hear from thy lattice breathed 

The word that shall give me rest. 
Open the door of thy heart. 

And open thy chamber door, 
And my kisses shall teach thy lips 

The love that shall fade no more 
Till the sun grows cold. 
And the stars are old. 

And the leaves of the Judgment Book unfold! 

His translation of Faust. Taylor was a most industrious 
writer of books, publishing some thirty-five or more volumes 
of varied character during his active career as poet, journal- 
ist, and professional traveler; but he wrote too much and too 



134 History of American Literature 

fast to meet the severe demands of permanent literature. 
Perhaps his most signal service to English literature is his 
well known metrical translation of th6 great German master- 
piece of the nineteenth century, — namely, Goethe's Faust. 
He had been strongly attracted to the German language 
even from his early youth, and after his travels in Germany, 
his extensive study of German literature at first hand, and 
his marriage to Marie Hansen, the daughter of a German 
astronomer, he undertook, with a high sense of the serious- 
ness and importance of his task, to translate into English 
the greatest of all German poems. It is generally recog- 
nized that Taylor's is the best metrical rendering of Faust 
into English that has yet been made. 

Edmund Clarence Stedman. It is difficult to say whether 
Edmund Clarence Stedman (i 833-1 908) deserves higher 
praise as a critic of poetry or as a poet. He had a rather 
odd career for a literary man of any type. He was dis- 
missed from Yale because of some wild pranks. He then 
wandered about, becoming in succession the editor of several 
country newspapers. He traveled around selling clocks, 
and then became a real estate broker in New York, where 
he won some notice by his lively poetical contributions to 
The New York Tribune. He acted as a reporter for several 
New York dailies, went to the front as a war correspondent 
during the Civil War, obtained a government clerkship in 
the department of the Attorney-General at Washington, 
and finally gave up this position to return to New York. 
He later secured a seat on the New York Exchange and held 
it until 1900, at which time he retired from business to devote 
his last years entirely to literature. He had never during 
all these years of active business life given up his study of 
literature nor the production of original poetry. He was 
a persistent reader of American and Victorian poetry, and 
his services to literature in his generous appreciation of 
many younger authors, in his own creative work, and in his 



Artistic or Creative Period: New York Group 13.S 

efforts in behalf of the cause of international copyright should 
give him the right to honorable mention in any history of 
our literature. 

Stedman as a poet. Stedman began writing verse while 
he was in college, winning a prize at Yale with his poem 
"Westminster Abbey." He wrote many poems on the 
stirring events of his time, notably his patriotic lyrics on 
John Brown and on Abraham Lincoln. He boldly included 
fifteen of his poems in his American Anthology, and his 
collected volume equals in bulk the work of most of the 
other American poets. Still there are none of his poems that 
may be classed among the permanent masterpieces of our 
literature. His "Pan in Wall Street" shows how the appeal 
of pastoral music came to him in the midst of his business 
career, but it also indicates that poetry is a jealous and 
severe mistress, and that no one who allows any large part 
of his energy to be absorbed in business can hope to rise to a 
position of great eminence in the arts. 

Stedman as a critic. Doubtless Stedman will be longer 
remembered as a critic than as a poet. Among his antholo- 
gies and critical productions should be mentioned first of 
all A Library of American Literature (1888), a standard 
reference work in eleven volumes edited by Stedman in 
collaboration with Miss Ellen M. Hutchinson ;- and next 
to this ambitious anthology should be mentioned A Victorian 
Anthology (1895) and An American Anthology (1901), both 
standard books in their fields. Victorian Poets (1875) ^^'^^ 
Poets of America (1885) are two of the most dependable, 
incisive, and stimulating critical works in our literature; 
and The Nature and Elements of Poetry (1892), a series of 
lectures delivered at Johns Hopkins University, contains a 
great deal of infoiTtiing and suggestive criticism for the 
student of poetry. Practically all general libraries which 
make any pretension to completeness possess some or all of 
these books. 



136 History of American Literature 

Richard Hovey. Though born in IlHnois, Richard Hovey 
(1864-1900) belongs by training and residence to the East, 
and since the better part of his work was done after he 
became a teacher of English literature at Barnard College 
and Columbia University, we may place him in the New 
York group. He prepared himself for the ministry, but 
turned to newspaper work and the stage, and finally to 
teaching. He was the most aspiring of all our younger 
poets, though his achievement was cut short by an early 
death. He attempted to rival the greatest poets both in 
choice of subjects and in treatment. He wrote Greek odes, 
Arcadian lyrics, stirring patriotic hymns, and many occa- 
sional poems; he dared to add a new canto to Byron's " Don 
Juan"; he entered Tennyson's field of Arthurian legends 
and planned a series of nine dramatic poems, which, had he 
lived to complete them, though they are cast in a different 
form from Tennyson's Idylls of 'the King, might have chal- 
lenged comparison with the greater poet's work. Besides 
publishing three successive volumes of Songs from Vaga- 
hondia (1894- 1896- 1900), written in collaboration with his 
friend Bliss Carman, the Canadian poet, and two other 
books of lyric verse. Along the Trail; a Book of Lyrics (1898) 
and To the End of the Trail (1908), Hovey completed four 
of the nine dramas planned to be included under the general 
title Launcelot and Guenevere; a poem in Dramas. These 
were "The Quest of Merlin, a Masque"; "The Marriage of 
Guenevere, a Tragedy"; "The Birth of Galahad, a Roman- 
tic Drama"; and "Taleisin, a Masque." A considerable 
part of the fifth piece, which was to be called "The Graal, 
a Tragedy, " was left in fragmentary form along with out- 
line sketches and fragments for the four remaining dramas. 
This sequence, even in its incomplete form, is undoubtedly 
the most notable piece of work yet done by an American 
in the field of Arthurian romance. As has been said, Hovey 
certainly deserves to be placed among "the inheritors of 



Artistic or Creative Period: New York Group 137 

unfulfilled renown." His war poems, written during the 
Spanish -American War, are particularly appropriate read- 
ing now that the great European War is absorbing so 
much attention. The following passage from "The Call of 
the Bugles" will illustrate Hovey's enthusiastic patriotism, 
and at the same time show how well parts of this poem fit 
recent conditions. 

Not against war, 

But against wrong 

League we in mighty bonds from sea to sea ! 

Peace, when the world is free! 

Peace, when there is no thong, 

Fetter nor bar! 

No scourges for men's backs, 

No thumbscrews arid no racks — 

For body or soul ! 

No unjust law ! 

No tyrannous control 

Of brawn or maw ! 

But, though the day be far. 

Till then, war! 

Blow, bugles! 

Over the rumbling drum and marching feet 

Sound your high, sweet defiance to the air! 

Great is war — great and fair! 

The terrors of his face are grand and sweet, , 

And to the wise, the calm of God is there. 

God clothes himself in darkness as in light, 

— The God of love, but still the God of might. 

Nor love they least 

Who strike with right good will 

To vanquish ill 

And fight God's battle upward from the beast. 

There is perhaps a touch of "jingoism" in Hovey's war 
poetry, but it must be remembered that he was still a young 
man when he died. If he had lived he would doubtless 
have moved on into a higher type of philosophic and unselfish 
patriotism. 



138 History of American Literature 

The song writers. New York and the middle states 
have furnished a number of our most successful popular 
song writers. Samuel Woodworth (i 785-1842) was born 
in Massachusetts, but he spent a large part of his life in 
New York as an editor. He is remembered for the senti- 
mental ballad "The Old Oaken Bucket." John Howard 
Payne (i 791-1852) was born in New York, but he lived a 
sort of nomadic life as an actor, dramatist, dramatic critic, 
and foreign consul, sojourning in many cities in many differ- 
ent lands. He is now remembered almost solely for the 
sincere and pathetic song "Home, Sweet Home," which 
was inserted as a lyric in "Clari, or The Maid of Milan," 
a sentimental light opera otherwise of little literary worth. 
Payne's best drama is his blank-'^erse tragedy called "Brutus, 
or The Fall of Tarquin." George Pope Morris (1802- 
1864), and Dr. Thomas Dunn English (18 19-1902), both 
of Philadelphia, are remembered respectively for a single 
successful lyric of a simple and reminiscent or sentimental 
type, Morris being the autlior of "Woodman, Spare that 
Tree," and Dr. English of the well known song, "Ben Bolt." 
Pennsylvania may also lay claim to Stephen C. Foster 
(1826-1864), since he was born in Pittsburgh, though he 
Hved most of his life in Cincinnati and is frequently thought 
of as a Middle Westerner. Foster had a fine sense for 
simple heart melodies, and several of his songs have become 
fixed in the American popular ear more permanently than 
any other native song except perhaps " Home, Sweet Home." 
The best known of his songs are "Old Black Joe," "My 
Old Kentucky Home," and "Old Folks at Home." 

Other minor poets. It will be impossible here to give a 
full discussion of the remaining New York and Middle 
States poets, though there are many others that should be 
mentioned both for the excellency of their technique and in 
some cases, particularly among the more recent poets, for 
the freshness and modernity of their lyric notes. Among 



Artistic or Creative Period: New York Grotip 139 

the best knoTVTi of these poets of the central section may be 
named the following: Thomas Buchanan Read (1822-1872), 
author of "Sheridan's Ride," "The Closing Scene," and 
many other longer and shorter poems; Hans Breitman, 
whose real name was Charles Godfrey Leland (i 824-1903), 
writer of humorous ballads in a sort of broken German 
English, or Pennsylvania Dutch, dialect; Richard Henry 
Stoddard (182 5-1 903), a prolific but unequal writer of nar- 
rative and lyric verse; Alice (1820-1871) and Phoebe Cary 
(1824-187 1), authors of many child lyrics and religious 
songs, "One Sweetly Solemn Thought " being the best known 
of the younger sister's hymns; Richard Watson Gilder 
( 1 844-1 909), for many years editor of The Century Maga- 
zine and author of numerous poems of a deeply religious or 
spiritual character; George H. Boker (1823-1890), writer of 
good lyrics and also the author of what has been pronounced 
the finest acting tragedy produced in America, "Francesca 
da Rimini"; Emma Lazarus (1849-1887), the widely ad- 
mired young Jewish poetess ; the Reverend Henry van Dyke 
(185 2-), writer of excellent idyllic prose and poHshed verse; 
Clinton Scollard (i860-) and Frank Dempster Sherman 
(1860-1916), both fine technicians in their lyric verse; 
Josephine Preston Peabody (1874-), author of deUghtful 
child poems and a prize drama, "The Piper " ; Percy Mackaye 
(187 5-), descended from a family of famous actors in New 
York City, author of "The Scarecrow" and a dozen or 
more other successful stage plays, a number of masques and 
one-act plays, and also some patriotic odes and other literary 
lyrics of merit; Witter Bynner (1881-), author of "An Ode 
to Harvard," "The New World," and " Iphigenia in Tauris" ; 
Joyce Kilmer (1886-19 18) and Alan Seeger (1888-19 16), 
each of whom gave up his life on the battle-fields of France, 
have reached a higher artistic excellence than any others 
of the hundreds of poets that have been inspired by the 
soul-stirring events of the great World War. The best of 



140 History of American Literature 

Kilmer's pre-war poetry was published in Trees and Other- 
Poems (1914). His most powerful and pathetic war poem 
is the "Prayer of a Soldier of France." By common consent 
Alan Seeger's "I Have a Rendezvous with Death" has 
been accepted as the greatest war poem produced by an 
American.^ 

THE NEW YORK ESSAYISTS AND GENERAL PROSE 
WRITERS 

The more important prose writers. The more important 
New York and Middle Atlantic States prose writers may- 
be grouped in two classes, — namely, the essayists and 
general prose stylists, and the story writers and novelists- 
Nathaniel Parker Willis, Bayard Taylor, Edmund Clarence 
Stedman, and Henry van Dyke, all of whom wrote good 
prose, have already been named among the poets. While 
dozens of additional names might be mentioned, the three 
writers of general prose that deserve special attention in 
the Middle States group are George William Curtis, Charles 
Dudley Warner, and John Burroughs. 

George William Curtis. George William Curtis (1824- 
1892) was bom in Rhode Island, but when he was fifteen he 
was carried to New York by his family and set to work as 
a clerk in a business establishment. Later he came under 
the influence of the transcendental movement which swept 
over New England, and for a time he lived at Brook Farm 
as one of the students or boarders. Then he took up his 
residence at Concord, in order to be near Emerson and some 
of the other noted transcendentalists there. After several 
years of travel abroad, during which period he wrote some 
good travel sketches, Curtis finally settled down to editorial 
work in New York City, being engaged principally on the 



iThe summarizing lists of minor writers with accompanying dates found 
here and elsewhere in this volume are not intended to be set as memory 
tasks for the pupils, but rather to be used by way of suggestion for further 
reading outside of the classroom. 



Artistic or Creative Period: New York Group 141 

publications issued by Harper and Brothers. His best 
prose work is contained in the idylHc Prue and I; in the 
Potiphar Papers; in the essays collected from the Editor's 
Easy Chair, a department which he conducted for a number 
•of years for Harper's Magazine; and in his popular Orations 
and Addresses. He carried his idealistic philosophy into 
politics and business in such a way as to set a very high 
standard for his contemporaries and at the same time to 
give a more than temporary value to his writings. He wrote 
one novel called Trumps, but the delicate and idyllic Prue 
und I, in which the imaginative element of fiction and the 
intimate personal tone of the familiar essay are mingled, 
stands out above all Curtis 's other productions, and may 
be classed as one of the distinctive American prose master- 
pieces of the mid-nineteenth century. 

Charles Dudley Warner. Charles Dudley Warner (1829- 
igoo) was born and reared in Massachusetts, but he was 
educated at Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, and in 
law at thS University of Pennsylvania; and after practicing 
his profession for a year in Chicago, he settled permanently 
in New York to engage in editorial and literary work. His 
principal prose works are My Summer in a Garden, a collec- 
tion of pleasing light essays and sketches; Backlog Studies, 
treating largely of outdoor material; several novels, among 
them The Gilded Age, written in collaboration with Mark 
Twain; and Being a Boy, a delightfully reminiscent book 
of his own boyhood. Warner's chief claim to literary 
•distinction is in his genial humor, kindly sentimentality, 
and perfect sincerity and naturalness of style. Many a 
young reader has learned to appreciate the art of restrained 
and yet effective prose through such sketches as "How I 
Killed a Bear" and "Camping Out." Warner is also often 
referred to as the editor of The Library of the World's Best 
Literature. 

John Burroughs. Among the recent writers of essays 
dealing with natural history and outdoor life in a sympathetic 



142 History of American Literature 

and more or less scientific spirit, the most prominent is John 
Burroughs (183 7-). He was born in Roxbury, New York,, 
and except for a few years devoted to business and travel, 
he has spent his entire life studying outdoor life at first 
hand in his rural retreats in New York. He has published 
a number of excellent books on nature and also some dis- 
criminating critical essays. Among the dozen or more 
volumes on nature which Burroughs has produced, perhaps 
the 'best are Wake Robin, Winter Sunshine, Birds and 
Poets, and Locusts and Wild Honey. Though not so well 
known as a writer of literary criticism, Burroughs is in 
reality one of our best critics. A recent writer has said that 
Burroughs's essays on literary subjects "may be classed 
with the sanest and most illuminating critical work in 
American literature."^ His essays have been collected in a 
volume called Indoor Studies. Burroughs was one of the 
earliest and most enthusiastic friends and champions of 
Walt Whitman, and his Notes on Walt Whitman, as Poet and 
Person and Walt Whitman, a Study are important 'contribu- 
tions to the large amount of Whitman criticism which has 
appeared in England and America in recent years. 

Other essayists. To this earlier group of general essayists 
may be added the names of several writers who have gained 
distinction by a steady adherence to the more distinctly 
literary type of essays: William Winter (183 6-1 9 17), the 
distinguished dramatic critic, author oi Shakespeare's England 
(1888), and Gray Days and Gold (i8gi); Hamilton Wright 
Mabie (1845-1916), literary editor of The Outlook and 
author of many books, among them My Study Fire in 
three volumes, dated respectively 1890, 1891, 1899; Miss 
Agnes Repplier (1858-), of Philadelphia, who has published 
more than a dozen volumes, among them Books and Men 
{i^?>'&), Essays in Idleness (iSg^,) , Americans and Others (19 1 2) ;. 



* F. L. Pattee, A History of American Literature since 1870, p. 153. 




Courtesy of King-Brown Company 
JOHN BURROUGHS AND JOHN MUIR 



144 History of American Literature 

and Paul Elmer More (1864-), whose Shelburne Essays are 
held by discerning critics to be the most discriminating 
American critical work of recent years. Mr. More was bom 
in St. Louis and partly educated there, but his best work 
has been done under the influence of New England and New 
York environments. To these may be added the names of 
two of our later presidents, — Theodore Roosevelt (1858- 
19 19), who was born and reared in New York City, but who 
spent several years of his life in Montana and the Middle 
West; and Woodrow Wilson (1856-), who was born in Vir- 
ginia, but who has lived the greater part of his mature life 
in New Jersey, where he was for a number of years president 
of Princeton University and later governor of the state. Mr. 
Roosevelt's best work is to be found in his Hunting Trips 
of a Ranchman (1885), Ranch Life and Hunting Trail (1888), 
and The Winning of the West (1889- 1896), all of which reflect 
his interest in Western life. After he became famous in the 
Spanish-American War, he published The Rough Riders 
(1899), and The Strenuous Life (1900). He has also written 
many volumes dealing with his hunting and exploring trip in 
foreign lands, and his last volume. The Great Adventure ( 1 9 1 8) , 
is perhaps the best of several books of his dealing with the 
World War. Mr. Wilson has published a number of volumes 
dealing mainly with political and historical subjects, among 
them An Old Master and Other Political Essays (1893), Mere 
Literature and Other Essays (1893), A History of the American 
People (1907), and The New Freedom (19 13). His great 
"War Message Address" (April 2, 1917), and his "Flag 
Day Speech" (June 14, 1917), as well as others of his public 
addresses, because of their cogency, their wonderful phras- 
ing, their sincere patriotism, and their elemental eloquence, 
will assuredly take a permanent place in our literary as well 
as in our political history. In fact, Woodrow Wilson has been 
hailed throughout the world not only as the spokesman of 
America but as the foremost statesman of the modern world. 



Artistic or Creative Period: New York Group 145 

THE NEW YORK NOVELISTS AND STORY-WRITERS 

The more important writers of fiction. A long chapter 
might be devoted to the New York and Middle Atlantic 
States writers of fiction, but we shall have to limit our 
brief comment to a small number of the most notable. 
Irving and Cooper, the two major writers of fiction in the 
early New York school, have already been given fuller 
treatment. To these we may add from the recent school 
the names of F. Marion Crawford, who is perhaps the 
best of the later New York writers judged both by the wide 
circulation and the literary value of his fiction ; and Stephen 
Crane, who if not in attainment at least in promise should 
be given a high rank among our later writers of fiction. 
O. Henry (William Sydney Porter), one of the most widely 
read of the twentieth-century writers, was connected in 
his later years with the New York group; but since he 
began his career in the South, he is treated elsewhere in 
this volume as one of the story writers of the South. To 
Philadelphia we may assign S. Weir Mitchell and Frank R. 
Stockton as the most important of the later writers of 
fiction in that center, and since they were older than 
Crawford and Crane, we shall take them up first. 

S. Weir Mitchell. Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell (1829-1914), 
though born in Virginia, was educated at the University 
of Pennsylvania and at the Jefferson Medical College in 
Philadelphia, and practically his whole life was spent in the 
city of his adoption. Not satisfied with winning fame as a 
physician, he determined to develop his literary gifts also. 
He began writing stories just after the Civil War, but it was 
not until he published Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker in 1897 
that he attained a national popularity. The scene of this 
story was laid in Philadelphia during the "days that tried 
men's souls," and it is now generally recognized as one of 
the best of American historical novels. Other novels by 
Dr. Mitchell worthy of special mention are The Adventures 
10 



146 History of American Literature 

of Frangois (1898), Dr. North and His Friends (igoo), Cir- 
cumstance (1901), and The Red City (1907). 

Frank R. Stockton. Frank Richard Stockton (1834-1902) 
was born and educated in Philadelphia and is usually 
associated with that city, though much of his literary work 
was done in connection with editorial positions which he 
held in New York City. The story that brought him fame, 
"The Lady, or the Tiger?" was first published in Scribner's 
Magazine in 1882, and has since been reprinted many times 
as the standard of the type of short story distinguished 
by peculiarity of situation and doubtful outcome. Stock- 
ton was possessed of a whimsical or quizzical turn of mind, 
and he seemed to take delight in creating odd and striking 
situations and in making humorous and tantalizing con- 
clusions. He is always entertaining, but there is no great 
constructive power and no profound and searching character 
analysis in his works. Rudder Grange (1879) is perhaps his 
best longer story. His fame will doubtless rest upon his 
ingenious short stories depicting ludicrous and yet more or 
less convincing situations, such as may be found in "The 
Lady, or the Tiger?" "Negative Gravity," "The Trans- 
ferred Ghost," and "The Late Mrs. Null." 

F. Marion Crawford. Francis Marion Crawford (1854- 
1909), though descended from a distinguished American 
family, was bom in Italy and really spent most of his life 
abroad. He was educated partly in New England and 
partly in English and German universities ; and he began his 
literary career at Harvard University. However, he was 
associated with New York life more intimately in his later 
literary career than with any other part of America, writing 
several novels depicting society life in the American metrop- 
olis and himself living mostly in New York whenever he 
visited this country. Hence, though he is quite as much a 
cosmopolitan as an American writer, we may place Crawford 
among the New York novelists. He wrote an enonnous 



Artistic or Creative Period: New York Group 147 

number of entertaining volumes of fiction, publishing forty- 
five novels in all, and as many as five in one year during 
his active literary career of twenty-seven years. His first 
book was Mr. Isaacs (1882), a story dealing with life in 
India, but it is generally conceded that his best stories are 
those which deal with Italian life and scenes. The four 
novels with Italian coloring, Saracinesca (1887), Sant' 
Ilario (i88g), Don Orsino (1892), and Corleone: A Sicilian 
Story (1897), a continuous sequence, rank among the most 
delightfully entertaining novels written during the late 
nineteenth century. Many other of Crawford's novels are 
ecfually popular, however, such stories as Dr. Claudius 
(1883), A Roman Singer (1884), Greijenstein (1889), and 
A Cigarette-Maker' s Romance (1890), having one after the 
other attracted and held thousands of readers. Crawford 
was a true cosmopolite. He knew the life of many lands; 
he has portrayed scenes and characters in Italy, Germany, 
England, Turkey, India, ancient Persia and Arabia, and 
America, all with convincing and entertaining skill. The 
Three Fates (1892) is perhaps the best of his stories dealing 
with New York society life, though Katharine Lauderdale 
(1894) and its sequel. The Ralstons (1894), also give inter- 
esting portraits of this same society. So wide is his range, 
so versatile his story -telling gift, and so adept his literary 
skill that he will probably long remain one of our most 
popular novelists. 

Stephen Crane. Stephen Crane (i 870-1 900), the youngest 
of the late nineteenth century New York group of novelists, 
was born in New Jersey and educated at Lafayette College 
and Syracuse University, entered journalism as a war 
correspondent of The New York Journal during the Spanish- 
American War, and rose rapidly to distinction in his pro- 
fession. He wrote stories dealing with slum life in New 
York {Bowery Tales), with child life {Whilomville Stories), 
and with New York society {The Third Violet); but his 



148 History of American Literature 

one notable production is The Red Badge of Courage (1895), 
a remarkable story centered around the battle of Chancellors- 
ville in the Civil War. It is really astonishing how thirty 
years after the war a young man of twenty-five could have 
conjured up such realistic battle scenes as are contained in 
this book. 

Minor fiction writers. Among the great number of 
novelists and short-story writers of the Middle Atlantic 
States group we may name the following with a typical 
work or works by each: Edward Payson Roe (1838-1888), 
Barriers Burned Away (1872), The Opening of a Chestnut 
Burr (1874); Edward Noyes Westcott (1847-1898), David 
Harum (1898) ; Henry van Dyke (18 5 2-), Little Rivers (1895) 
and Fisherman's Luck (1899), two outdoor studies, and 
numerous short stories, among them "The Story of the 
Other Wise Man," perhaps the most beautiful Christmas 
story written in America; Henry Cuyler Bunner (185 5-1 896), 
Short Sixes (1891); Harold Frederic (1856-1898), The 
Copperhead, and Other Stories of the North (1893) s-^d The 
Damnation of Theron Ware (1896); Kate Douglas Wiggin 
(1859-), The Bird's Christmas Carol (1888), The Story of 
Patsy (1889), Timothy's Quest (1890), Penelope's Progress 
(1898), Rebecca of Sunny Brook Farm (1903), and New 
Chronicles of Rebecca (1907); Irving Bacheller (1859-), 
Eben Holden (1900), D'ri and I (1900) ; Owen Wister (i860-), 
The Virginian (1900); Philosophy Four (1903), Lady 
Baltimore (1906), Mrs. Edith Wharton (1862-), The Valley 
of Decision (1902), The House of Mirth (1905), Pentecost 
of Calamity (1915), Ethan Frome (1911), The Reef (1912); 
Richard Harding Davis (1864-19 16), Gallagher and Other 
Stories (1891), Van Bibber and Others (1892); Paul Leicester 
Ford (1865-1902), The Honorable Peter Stirling (1894), 
Janice Meredith, a Story of the American Revolution (1894); 
Anne Douglas Sedgwick, Mrs. de Selincourt, (1873-) A 
Fountain Sealed (1907), Tante (191 1), The Encounter (19 14). 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 149 
II. The New England Group 

PRELIMINARY SURVEY 

The New England Renaissance. Three well-defined and 
far-reaching intellectual movements took rise in New 
England during the second and third quarters of the century. 
These were, first, the revolt against the Calvinistic theology 
of the Puritans, a movement which resulted in Unitarianism; 
second, the idealistic philosophy introduced from Europe 
and known in America as Transcendentalism; and third, 
the anti-slavery or abolition movement in politics, a move- 
ment which eventually divided the nation into two intensely 
antagonistic factions and led more or less directly to the 
Civil War. The whole intellectual movement in New 
England has been happily called "the New England Ren- 
aissance."^ Before taking up a survey of the writers of 
this section, we may well attempt to explain briefly these 
three movements and thus present the general nature of 
the revival which came to dominate the thought of New 
England and of the whole nation, in fact, during this period. 

THE RISE OF UNITARIANISM 

The spirit of liberty. We have previously discussed the 
general characteristics of the thought and ternper of the 
Puritan settlers of New England.^ We come now to observe 
how the same spirit that led the Pilgrim fathers to leave 
England in search of religious freedom animated the later 
New England thinkers in their gradual revolt against the 
narrowness and personal restraints inspired by the austere 
and repressive attitude toward life which characterized the 
Puritan regime in America. The first form in which this 
revolt expressed itself was within the church. The spirit 
of the Revolution, which, as we have seen, eventually over- 
threw English political sovereignty, manifested itself also 

iSee Professor Barrett Wendell's A Literary History of America. 
2See p. 00. 



150 History of American Literature 

in the quiet revolution which took place in religious thought 
— namely, the dethronement of Calvinism and the gradual 
acceptance of Unitarianism in its stead. 

Fundamental teachings of Unitarianism. Har\^ard Col- 
lege was in its early history the intellectual stronghold of 
Calvinistic theology, but during the eighteenth century 
Harvard gradually became more and more independent of 
this influence, while Yale College in Connecticut became 
the center of religious conservatism and orthodoxy. The 
history of the change at Harvard is significant. In 1805 
Reverend Henry Ware, a Unitarian minister, was elected, 
over the protests of the orthodox Calvinistic party, to be 
Professor of Divinity at Harvard. The Unitarians hold 
that there is one God and that He made man in his own 
image; they deny that Jesus is the equal of God, accept- 
ing him, however, as the perfect man, or at least the perfect 
representative of what man may become. They profess 
to find in man's own nature certain tendencies toward the 
divine, and hence they declare that there is no need for a 
Redeemer and consequently no need for a Comforter, or 
Holy Spirit, to represent this Redeemer. The doctrine of 
the Trinity is thus gradually dethroned, and the doctrine of 
the one God, which, is the fundamental idea of Unitarianism 
as is indicated in the name itself, is accepted in its stead. 

Chanriing's leadership. WiUiam Ellery Channing (1780- 
1842) was the chief spokesman of the new theology now 
rising into prominence in New England. He became the 
minister of the Federal Street Church in Boston in 1803 and 
remained its pastor for thirty-seven years. In 18 19 he 
preached his famous sermon on Unitarian Christianity, in 
which he declared for intellectual freedom in religious mat- 
ters, and particularly in the interpretation of the Scriptures, 
basing his argument on the text, " Prove all things; hold fast 
that which is good." He held that the Scriptures must be 
interpreted by man in the light of reason rather than blindly 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 151 

accepted as a matter of faith or mere traditional doctrine. 
He laid the foundation of virtue in the moral nature of man 
and held up conscience as the supreme guide of conduct. 
This spirit of liberalism in religious matters was in effect 
a reaction against the restraints set up by the strict Cal- 
vinistic tenets of the Puritans. One of the final reforms 
instituted in the new form of worship was the abandonment 
of the use of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. It will be 
remembered that Emerson, who was the minister of the 
old Second Church at Boston, retired from the pastorate 
because he had come to have conscientious scruples in regard 
to administering the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 

Influence on the New England writers. Although the 
sect was at no period strong numerically, Unitarianism 
became the religious belief of the best intellectual element 
in New England during the first two decades of the nine- 
teenth century, and held sway until well past the middle of 
the century, when its influence began to decline. It exerted 
a powerful force upon the literary products of this period, 
all of the great New England writers except Whittier either 
having accepted it as their faith or having come strongly 
under its influence. In any interpretation of American 
literature in the nineteenth century, the remarkable change 
from the early strict Puritanism or Calvinistic theology to 
the liberalism of the Unitarian movement cannot be ignored. 
Unitarianism was more or less intimately connected with 
Transcendentalism, and also with the rise of the doctrine 
of the abolition of slavery, and hence it must be constantly 
kept in mind in interpreting these later phases of the intel- 
lectual awakening in New England. 

THE TRANSCENDENTAL MOVEMENT 

The origin and the meaning of Transcendentalism. There 
arose in middle Europe during the latter part of the eight- 
eenth and early part of the nineteenth centuries an idealistic 



152 History oj American Literature 

type of philosophy which materially affected the literature 
of the time. The literary activity resulting partly from 
this idealistic philosophy and partly, from other causes 
became known as the Romantic Movement. Its principal 
exponents in England were De Quincey, Coleridge, and 
Carlyle in prose, and Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, 
Shelley, and Keats in poetry. Naturally the new impulse 
found followers in America, and what is known as the 
Transcendental Movement came into prominence, particu- 
larly in the work of Emerson, Thoreau, Margaret Fuller 
(Marquise d'Ossoli), and Bronson Alcott. It is difficult 
to define Transcendentalism, but in general it may be said 
to be the recognition of the supremacy of idealism in phi- 
losophy, literature, and conduct of life. It is, in fact, an 
exaltation of the ideal or spiritual over the real or material. 
With our physical senses we form concepts of what we call 
the real world; but these are only the appearances of spirit- 
ual ideals, and back of all objects perceived by the senses 
are spiritual realities which man can only perceive through 
the higher faculties of his soul. Hence, the transcenden- 
talist concludes: Material objects, which ordinarily we 
think we perceive through our senses as real things, are only 
the appearances, the symbols, of spiritual forces and realities 
back of them; hence, also, the realities of the spiritual or 
the ideal transcend, or are superior to, the ordinary appear- 
ances in the world of sense. The transcendentalists claimed, 
then, that we do not depend solely upon the knowledge 
gained through our senses, that is, our ordinary experiences 
in the world; nor upon divine revelation of the spiritual 
world as recorded in the Bible; but upon our intuitions, or 
upon certain innate, that is inborn, instincts or concepts in 
man's nature or soul and the interpretation of these by the 
individual conscience. They believed that the soul of 
man was of the same essence as the divine soul, and hence 
man should give heed to the inner promptings of his own 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 153 

nature in deciding matters of moral conduct. For example, 
they held that man realizes the difference between right and 
wrong by intuition or instinctive revelation in his own 
nature, rather than by revelation through experience or 
even through God's divine word. Emerson expressed the 
central ideas of this philosophy in the little book called 
Nature (1836), in which he drew the distinction between 
nature or the material world and the soul or the world of 
spirit; in several of his lectures, particularly in the one 
called "The Transcendentalist " ; and in many of his essays, 
such as "The Over Soul," "Self-Reliance," "Experience," 
and " Compensation . ' ' 

Popular ridicule of the transcendentalists. Naturally the 
enthusiasts or extremists of this philosophy attracted a 
great deal of ridicule from the public. Amos Bronson 
Alcott was one of the most impractical and visionary of the 
transcendental extremists, and he became the target of many 
a shaft of wit from the practical New England critics of the 
new philosophy ... He was accused of living in the clouds, 
drinking the wind, and feeding on spiritual breakfasts of 
"bowls of sunshine." The practical New Englanders 
reminded him that his family could not exist on "bowls of 
sunshine" and "transcendental moonshine," and these 
became cant phrases for ridiculing the cult. Because of 
the mystical and super-subtle notions and the transcenden- 
tal vaporings of some of the extremists, however, we should 
not under-estimate the real value and permanent influence 
of the Transcendental Movement. 

The Dial. A good deal of vagueness naturally attends this 
idealistic philosophy, and it was necessary for the pro- 
ponents of these vague and abstruse doctrines to have some 
medium in which to express their thought and bring it before 
the public for fuller acceptance and discussion. In 1836 the 
Transcendental Club, sometimes called the Symposium, was 
organized at Concord; and in 1840, The Dial was established 



154 History of American Literature 

with a remarkable woman, Margaret Fuller — she later 
married an Italian marquis named Ossoli — as editor. This 
quarterly journal continued for four years, part of the time 
under Emerson's direction. It is now highly prized as the 
chief repository of much of the contemporary expression of 
the transcendental notions then in vogue. Emerson con- 
tributed some of his most notable essays and poems to it; 
Bronson Alcott sent in by chapters his "Orphic Sayings"; 
Margaret Fuller wrote for it many critical articles; and 
other well known men, like George Ripley, Theodore Parker, 
William Ellery Channing, and Henry David Thoreau, were 
contributors. 

The Brook Farm experiment. In addition to The Dial 
another peculiar experiment helped to bring the ideals of 
the transcendentalists into public notice. This was the 
establishment in 1841 of a sort of idealistic community at 
West Roxbury, near Boston, known as Brook Farm. It was 
intended to afford a school for the training of bright young 
minds in the new transcendental philosophy, and at the 
same time to provide a retreat for adults who wished to 
live the ideal communistic life. The members of the com- 
munity were to have equal privileges, and each one was 
expected to do his share of physical labor and also to join 
in the intellectual and literary activities of the group. 
It will be remembered that Hawthorne invested one thou- 
sand dollars of his savings in the project at its beginning, 
spent several months in residence at the farm, and later 
based one of his novels. The Blithedale Romance, on his 
experiences here. The phalanstery, or common home for 
all the members, was built later, and a number of men and 
women and younger students took up their residence here 
for longer or shorter periods. The experiment attracted 
widespread attention throughout New England and even in 
certain parts of the Old World. Emerson, Margaret Fuller, 
and many prominent persons made occasional visits of 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 155 

several days' length to the community. From a practical 
point of view the experiment proved a failure, for the resident 
members knew too little about practical agriculture to make 
anything from the land, and the income from the school was 
insufficient to pay running expenses. When the main build- 
ing burned in 1847, the community was broken up and the 
experiment abandoned. Little of purely literary value 
resulted directly from the Brook F.arm experiment, but the 
influence of this effort to put the idealistic theories of the 
transcendentalists into practical living must be taken into 
account in estimating the literary output of New England 
during this period. 

THE RISE OF THE DOCTRINE OF ABOLITION 

Introductory statement. The growth of the demand for 
the abolition of negro slavery in America is intimately 
interwoven with the rise of Unitarian theolog}^ and tran- 
scendental philosophy in New England. Abolition became 
later a political and social question, but in its beginning 
it was an offshoot of the new spirit for setting free mind 
and soul as announced in the religious and philosophic 
reforms just mentioned. Since the question finally became 
one of practical politics, its progress is usually more or less 
fully treated in school histories of the United States, and 
hence here we need only glance at its literary aspects. 

Literary products: pamphleteers and orators. Naturally 
a question of public policy like the abolition of slavery 
would call forth two distinct schools of orators and political 
writers, and naturally the North, animated by the influences 
for personal and intellectual liberty emanating from the 
two religious and intellectual movements just described, 
would stand for the complete emancipation of the negro 
slaves; naturally, too, the South, where slavery had proved 
to be most successful in the agricultural pursuits of that 
section, would favor the continuance of the institution of 



156 History of American Literature 

slavery. In New England, particularly, the aid of pure 
literature was also called in, and we have a great mass of 
anti-slavery poems, such as those of Whittier, Lowell, and 
Longfellow among the greater poets; and purpose novels, 
such as Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. But 
the bulk of the literature connected with the movement 
for abolition consisted of patriotic orations and argumen- 
tative speeches, essays and polemical tracts, and the like. 
Whittier, Lowell, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, 
and many others contributed to the leading abolition 
journals, such as The Liberator, founded by Garrison in 
Boston in 1831, and The Pennsylvania Freeman, edited for 
a number of years by Whittier. The literary value of this 
controversial writing and this partisan oratory, as we have 
already shown in our discussion of the Revolutionary 
literature, is slight and transitory. We cannot pass over 
this material, however, without mentioning the names of 
such orators as Daniel Webster (1782-1852), Edward 
Everett (1794-1865), Theodore Parker (1810-1860), Wendell 
Phillips (1811-1886), and Charles Sumner (1811-1874). 
The orations of some of these have reached a wider fame 
because of their more general patriotic or literary nature, 
such as Webster's great address at the laying of the corner- 
stone of the Bunker Hill monument, known as "The First 
Bunker Hill Oration," his speech on the American Con- 
stitution, usually called "Webster's Reply to Hayne," 
delivered in the "Great Debate" in Congress in 1830, and 
Everett's oft-repeated speech on "George Washington." 
Interesting also from the point of view of literary history 
is Everett's speech, " The Progress of Literature in America." 

THE MAJOR NEW ENGLAND WRITERS 

The major writers classified. The seven major writers 
of New England are, by common consent, Emerson, Haw- 
thorne, Longfellow, Whittier, Holmes, Thoreau, and Lowell. 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 157 

Emerson is classed as an ethical teacher and essayist, but 
he is almost equally well known as a poet. Hawthorne, 
the great romancer, wrote no poetry, but because of the 
highly imaginative and artistic quality of his prose tales 
he is frequently referred to as the belated prose poet of Puri- 
tan New England. Longfellow and Whittier are thought 
of primarily as poets, though each of them wrote a con- 
siderable amount of prose. Holmes and Lowell are about 
equally famous as prose writers and poets. Thoreau wrote 
some poetry, but he is now almost entirely remembered as a 
writer of essays interpretative of nature. Together these 
seven New England authors make up by far the most impor- 
tant school of American writers. We shall consider them 
separately in sequence, but the student should remember 
that they were all more or less closely associated one with 
another, and that their literary products as a whole represent 
the best output of what Professor Wendell has called the 
New England Renaissance. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson. Matthew Arnold, in his lecture 
on Emerson, said that if we should judge him with perfect 
impartiality we would have to admit that Emerson is not a 
great poet, not a great prose writer, not even a great phi- 
losopher, but that he is "preeminently the friend and aider 
of those who would live in the spirit." In ranking Emerson 
relatively in American literature, however, we do not hesitate 
to say that he is one of our great poets, even though he is 
not preeminent in this field; that he is unquestionably our 
greatest essayist; and that he is one of the world's great 
ethical teachers. No educated American can afford to be 
unacquainted with the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

Emerson's early life. Emerson (i 803-1 882), was born in 
Boston, May 25, 1803. He was descended from a long line 
of New England ministers, his father. Reverend William 
Emerson, being minister at the First Unitarian Church in 
Boston at the time of Emerson's birth, and his grandfather of 



158 History of American Literature 

the same name being minister at Concord during the American 
Revolution. Emerson was graduated from Harvard College 
at the age of eighteen. It is said that he attracted no particu- 
lar notice while he was in college, but he made a good record 
and took some of the honors, being chosen as class poet 
• and taking the second prize in the Boylston contest in Eng- 
lish composition. Immediately after graduation he engaged 
in teaching, but in 1823 he returned to the divinity school of 
Harvard College and began studying definitely for the 
ministry. He was ordained in 1829 and was at once installed 
as assistant minister in the Second Unitarian Church of 
Boston. In this year he married Miss Ellen Tucker. She 
did not live long, however, and some years later Emerson 
was married to Miss Lidian Jackson, who bore him several 
children and made him a happy home at Concord. Emerson 
became full minister of the Second Church when his colleague 
resigned in 1829, and for over three years he served the 
church acceptably. In 1832 he began to have conscientious 
scruples about his fitness to commemorate the Lord's Supper, 
and on September 9 of that year he preached his farewell 
sermon and courageously resigned his pulpit. 

Emerson's lectures. Thus thrown on his own resources for 
a livelihood, Emerson began to lecture and write. He visited 
Europe in 1833 and met many famous literary people, 
notably Wordsworth, Coleridge, Landor, De Quincey, 
George Eliot, and Cowper. On his return he settled in 
Concord (1834) and took up his residence at the famous old 
house known as the "Old Manse," where his grandfather. 
Reverend William Emerson, Sr., had lived, and where 
Hawthorne later took up his abode and wrote Mosses from 
an Old Manse. The correspondence between Emerson and 
Carlyle, begun at this period, extended to the death of 
Carlyle in 1881, and the series of letters between these two 
great masters is one of the most notable in all English and 
American literature. The lecture platform was Emerson's 




RALPH WALDO EMERSON 



i6o History of American Literature 

pulpit from this time on. In fact, it was largely through 
Emerson that lyceum lecturing as a means of public enter- 
tainment and instruction was first brought into favor in this 
country. He had a marvelously sweet and appealing voice, 
and his fresh, vigorous, tonic messages attracted and inspired 
his audiences even when they did not fully understand the 
import of what he was saying. 

"Concord Hymny On September 12, 1835, Emerson 
delivered at Concord a speech called "An Historical Dis- 
course on the Second Centennial Anniversary of the Incor- 
poration of the Town," and when the monument commemo- 
rating the battle of Concord was dedicated on July 4, 1837, 
he was called upon to write a hymn for the occasion. The 
little poem which he produced, now known as "Concord 
Hymn," has since become one of the nation's poetical 
treasures. It has only four stanzas, but is complete and 
satisfying as a work of art. Its most famous stanza is the 
first, this being the one which was later inscribed on the 
Concord Monument. 

"Nature.'' In 1836 Emerson's first book, Nature, ap- 
peared. It was a small volume of less than one hundred 
pages, but it was packed full of inspiration, idealism, and 
profound philosophy. It was written in a tense, poetical, 
rhapsodic prose style, and naturally it attracted very little 
popular attention. Holmes calls it a reflective prose poem. 
It sets forth ideas on nature similar to those expressed by 
Wordsworth in his poetry, and it is the seed-field for many 
of the transcendental ideas later developed by Emerson on 
nature, God, and the soul of man. The public was not 
ready for such a volume, and not more than five hundred 
copies of this really great book were sold within twelve years 
after its publication. 

"The American Scholar." Nevertheless, Emerson was 
now rapidly becoming a prominent figure in the intellectual 
life of New England. In 1837 he was asked to deliver the 




THE MINUTE MAN. CONCORD 

"By the rude bridge that arched the flood, 
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled. 
Here once the embattled farmers stood, 
And fired the shot heard round the world. 



11 



1 62 History of American Literature 

oration before the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Cambridge, 
and he prepared for this occasion that notable address 
"The American Scholar." Lowell spoke of its delivery as 
an event "without former parallel in our literary annals," 
and Holmes said "this grand oration was our intellectual 
Declaration of Independence." In it Emerson defined the 
scholar as "Man Thinking," and declared "Our day of 
dependence, our long apprenticeship to the learning of other 
lands draws to a close." He discussed the education of 
the scholar by nature, books, and action, and laid down a 
noble scheme of the scholar's duties in the new age of inde- 
pendence and individualism. Holmes said in summarizing 
the effect of this wonderful oration: "Young men went out 
from it as if a prophet had been proclaiming to them ' Thus 
saith the Lord. ' No listener ever forgot that address, and 
among all the notable utterances of the speaker it may be 
questioned if one ever contained more truth in language more 
like that of immediate inspiration. " 

Emerson's "Essays." The Essays, First Series, appeared 
in 1841, and the Second Series in 1844. Most of these 
essays were first given as lectures. One might think that 
the lecturer could have simplified and reduced his addresses 
into some formal order as he repeated them from time to 
time, but such is not the case with Emerson's essays. There 
is great compression of thought and condensation and pre- 
cision of style in these compositions. It has been said that 
"he who runs may read, " but this saying cannot be applied 
to Emerson's essays. One must stop and think, and think 
deeply, or else one will miss the best of Emerson's thought. 
No book in our literature is more worthy of one's close study 
and attention, and none will give the young mind such fine 
practice in interpretative mental exercise. In fact, Emerson 
is one of the most inspiring of all writers; it is said that he 
has made more thoughtful readers than has any other Ameri- 
can writer. He is certainly a stimulating mental tonic, and 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 163 

every ambitious youth should give his very best effort to 
the mastery of a few of the simpler pieces, and eventually 




EMERSON'S HOME, CONCORD 

should read all twenty-four of the essays in these two 
volumes. "Self-Reliance," "Behavior," "Heroism," and 
"Compensation" are perhaps the most stimulating for 
young readers, but there are many others almost if not 
quite as good, not only in the two volumes of Essays, but 
in the remaining prose works of Emerson. 

Emerson's other prose volumes. Among the other prose 
books of Emerson are Representative Men (1850), English 
Traits (1850), Conduct of Life (i860), Society and Solitude 
(1870), Letters and Social Aims (1875). These are made 
up largely of lectures and essays similar in thought and style 
to the better known Essays. All through the years of his 
maturity Emerson had the habit of jotting down his thoughts 
in his Journals, and from this intellectual storehouse he drew 
material for his addresses and books. This wonderful 



164 History of American Literature 

miscellaneous source book for the study of Emerson's 
thought and the development of his mind and character 
has now been published, and lovers of Emerson can delve 
in it at will. 

Emerson's prose style. Emerson's style is unique. He 
said what he had to say in brilliant, epigrammatic sentences, 
often so condensed as to be almost unintelligible to the 
superficial reader. He had little smoothness or sweetness of 
style, though he possessed wonderful facility in turning 
epigrams and expressive phrases, and occasionally he rose 
to passages of majestic beauty and sublimity. He may 
be said to be weak in the architectural or combining and 
arranging power of style. He throws his brilliant sentences 
and paragraphs together in a vague sort of order. There is 
certainly not that smoothness in transition nor definiteness 
of paragraph topics that we now expect and demand of the 
average good prose stylist. He said himself that he sought 
no order or harmony of style in his writing. He speaks of 
his sentences as composed of "infinitely repellent particles. " 
One often thinks of Emerson's essays as made up of rough 
piles of unhewn stones thrown together indiscriminately. 
In another place Emerson speaks of his "lapidary style," 
that is, the style of one who composes as if his sentiments 
were to be carved in stone. Oliver Wendell Holmes, in his 
life of Emerson in the American Men of Letters Series, says : 
"Emerson's style is epigrammatic, incisive, authoritative, 
sometimes quaint, never obscure, except when he is handling 
nebulous subjects. His paragraphs are full of brittle sen- 
tences that break apart and are independent units, like the 
fragments of a coral colony. His imagery is frequently daring, 
leaping from the concrete to the abstract, from the special 
to the general and universal, and vice versa, with a bound 
that is like a flight. " 

Emerson as a poet. As a poet Emerson has usually not 
been ranked high, but there are some who consider him 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 165 

after all the truest of American poets. There is no use 
denying that he was a mediocre poetical craftsman in so far 
as mere technical excellences are concerned. His rhythm 
is often harsh and wabbly, and his rimes are sometimes 
untrue and even impossible. There is little or no steady 
evolution of thought or largeness and finality of treatment 
in many of his poems; but in others, particularly some of the 
shorter ones, there are an artistic finish and a completeness 
and a perfection of expression that leave Httle to be desired. 
For the most part Emerson's better poetry is personal and 
self -revealing. We can understand Emerson the philosopher 
by studying the essays; but we can better comprehend 
Emerson the man by studying his poetry. It is true that a 
number of his poems deal with abstract philosophical truths, 
such as we find in the essays, and these will puzzle the most 
attentive reader unless by a previous acquaintance with 
the essays he is prepared to know what to expect. That 
Emerson was at bottom a real poet is no less evident in his 
best prose than in his best poetry. He took the office of 
poet seriously, declaring that he was naturally susceptible 
to the pleasures of rhythm and that he believed he would 
some day "attain to that splendid dialect." Eventually 
he almost always put his finest thoughts into rhythmic 
form. For example, once when he was taking a brief holi- 
day at the seashore on Cape Ann, he wrote in his journal a 
passage of prose expressing his emotions in the presence of 
the ocean. When he returned to Concord, he read the 
passage over aloud and discovered that with a few slight 
changes the whole could be scanned as almost perfect 
blank verse. He immediately transcribed it in poetic form 
and added a few lines, thus completing the beautiful poem 
called "Seashore." 

Emerson's best poems. Besides "Concord Hymn," which 
has already been mentioned, among the best of Emerson's 
shorter poems for the young reader are "Good-Bye," 



1 66 History of American Literature 

"The Rhodora," "The Humble Bee," "The Snow-Storm," 
"Give All to Love," "Each and All," "Fable" (sometimes 
called "The Mountain and the Squirrel"), "The Titmouse," 
and "Days." The longer poems are not such easy reading, 
for they are usually composed more in the manner of the 
essays, that is, they have little apparent organic or system- 
atic evolution and ordering of parts. "May-Day" and 
"Woodnotes" are typical. They contain many beautiful 
passages, but they are disappointing as wholes. The poem 
called "Threnody," an elegy written in memory of Emer- 
son's son who died at the age of about five years, will prove 
to be more satisfying because of its note of faith even in 
the poignancy of the poet's grief. Similarly, "Terminus," 
a poem written toward the close of Emerson's active career, 
sets forth the poet's cheerful optimism and calm dignity 
as he approached old age and death. The final stanza, 
which reminds one of the brave and optimistic outlook 
with which Browning greeted death, is well worth commit- 
ting to memory: 

As the bird trims her to the gale, 
I trim myself to the storm of time, 
I man the rudder, reef the sail, 
Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime: 
"Lowly faithful, banish fear, 
Right onward drive unharmed; 
The port, well worth the cruise, is near, 
And every wave is charmed." 

In "Voluntaries," a poem written during the Civil War, 
occurs the ringing appeal to youth to rally to the call of 
Freedom. The last quatrain of the third division of this 
poem is one of the finest examples of the ethical epigram to 
be found anywhere in English poetry: 

So nigh is grandeur to our dust. 

So near is God to man, 
When Duty whispers low. Thou must, 

The youth replies, / can. 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 167 

Emerson's last days: final estimate. Emerson died 
April 27, 1882, and was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, 




EMERSON'S GRAVE. SLEEPY HOLLOW 

Concord, near the grave of Hawthorne. An immense 
boulder of unhewn rose quartz, typical of the combination 
of rough strength and native beauty in Emerson's genius, 
now marks his grave. In the latter part of his life his mind 
showed evidences of gradual decay. He ceased to produce 
anything of worth, and he forgot even the names of his 
friends. When Longfellow died (March, 1882), Emerson 
was carried to the funeral, and as he looked on the dead 
poet's face he was heard to remark, "That gentleman was 
a sweet, beautiful soul, but I have entirely forgotten his 
name." Emerson had long since done his best work. He 
had touched as with a tongue of fire the young and vigorous 
minds of America; he had declared for independence, self- 
trust, individualism in religion and art; he had expressed 
his own sense of the profound moral and ethical truths of 



1 68 History of American Literature 

the universe in enduring form in both prose and verse. 
As Mr. Paul Elmer More declares in his recent essay on 
Emerson, "It becomes more and more apparent that 
Emerson, judged by an international standard or even by 
a broad national standard, is the outstanding figure in 
American letters."^ 

Nathaniel Hawthorne. Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804- 
1864), born in the seacoast town of Salem, Massachusetts, 
July 4, 1804, was descended from two generations of sea 
captains and from a long line of Puritan magistrates and 
warriors. Among his progenitors on his father's side were 
some who persecuted the Quakers and authorized the execu- 
tions of witches in the celebrated Salem witchcraft delusion. 
It is said that the curse of one of the sufferers lingered like 
a black blot in the blood, and it has been suggested that 
the dark and gloomy cast of Hawthorne's genius was trace- 
able to this ancestral source. His mother was a Manning, 
another distinguished Puritan family, and so we may cer- 
tainly say that Hawthorne came naturally by that Puritan 
conscience of which he was to become the renowned artistic 
interpreter. 

Hawthorne's youth. In the boy's fourth year his father 
died while away on a sea voyage, and his mother shut her- 
self up from the world in a sort of life-long grief. After 
several years she moved to the large Manning estates on 
Sebago Lake, Maine, and here Nathaniel lived from his 
ninth until his fourteenth year. As he afterwards declared, 
this was one of the bright periods in his rather gloomy and 
solitary early life. "I ran quite wild," he wrote, "and 
would, I doubt not, have willingly run wild till this time, 
fishing all day long, or shooting with an old fowling-piece; 
but reading a good deal, too, on the rainy days, especially 

^Cambridge History of American Literature, Vol. I, p. 349. The best 
known life of Emerson is that by Oliver Wendell Holmes in the American 
Men of Letters Series (1885). A good recent treatment is that by O. W. 
Firkins (1915). 




NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 



lyo History of American Literature 

in Shakespeare and The Pilgrim's Progress." This last 
book, along with another early favorite of Hawthorne's, 
Spenser's Faerie Queene, is significant as the source of his 
fondness for allegory in his own stories. 

His education. His mother returned to Salem to seek 
means of education for her three children. She selected a 
tutor for Nathaniel, and within two years he was ready to 
enter Bowdoin College. Franklin Pierce, afterwards presi- 
dent of the United States, was one class ahead of Hawthorne, 
and Longfellow was in the same class, that of 1825. Haw- 
thorne made a few close friendships, notably with Pierce 
and Horatio Bridge, the last named being his most intimate 
friend, and the one who believed in him and had most influ- 
ence in turning him toward authorship. 

Hawthorne's tales and sketches. After graduation Haw- 
thorne went back to Salem, where his mother still lived. 
And in "a solitary chamber under the eaves" of the house 
on Herbert Street, not far from where he was bom, he 
developed through the next twelve years his powerful and 
original literar>^ style. All the members of the family were 
seclusive in their habits. The two sisters kept to their 
rooms, the mother had her meals served in her separate 
apartment, and naturally in such a household Hawthorne 
developed to the fullest extent what he called his "cursed 
habit of solitude." He published anonymously an immature 
novel called Fanshawe in 1828, but he afterwards wished 
to withdraw it from circulation. He became extremely 
fastidious about the finish and style of his work, and it is 
said that during this period of his literary apprenticeship 
he wrote and rewrote and then burned many tales and 
sketches. He published a few pieces in The New England 
Magazine and in the early issues of The Token, a Boston 
annual; and under G. C. Goodrich's editorship of The Token 
he increased his contributions to this annual so that within 
a few years he had published enough stories to make up 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 171 

the first edition of the happily christened Twice-Told Tales 
(1837). This volume was subsequently (1842) enlarged 




THE GREAT STONE FACE 

from eighteen to thirty-nine tales, and it has since held its 
place as one of the few permanent short-story collections in 
our literature. Mosses from an Old Manse (1846) and 
The Snow Image and Other Twice-Told Tales (1852) are 
similar collections. Except for the work of Poe and Irving 
nothing has yet appeared in our literature that can be com- 
pared with these tales for finish of style, literary art, and 
profound analysis of the various phases of human life. 
Part of them are mere sketches or essays, others are based 
on historical incidents, but most of them are works of pure 
fancy and imagination. Even when the skeleton or basal 
facts are historical, the real flesh and blood, the creative 
part of the story, is almost entirely imaginative and original. 
It is almost impossible to select the best of these stories for 



172 History of American Literature 

special mention. Every critic of the volumes seems to 
light upon different ones as the best, and no two persons 
are found to agree. The following- stories have met with 
general approval and certainly represent Hawthorne's art 
at its best: '-'The Birthmark," "Dr. Heidegger's Experi- 
ment," "The Minister's Black Veil," "The Great Stone 
Face," " Rappaccini's Daughter," "Young Goodman 
Brown," "The Great Carbuncle," "The Ambitious Guest," 
and " The Wedding-Knell . " 

Hawthorne's love afair. It was the publication of Twice- 
Told Tales that led to Hawthorne's acquaintance, and later 
engagement and marriage, with Miss Sophia Peabody. 
Elizabeth Peabody, the elder sister, became interested in 
the author of these exquisite short stories, and through her 
friendship with Hawthorne's sisters she invited him to 
call at her home. Here he met the youngest of the three 
sisters, Sophia, and even though she was something of an 
invalid at this time, her bright, well-trained mind and her 
artistic temperament — for she was gifted with brush and 
pencil — attracted the romancer from his social seclusion. 
Her beneficent influence caused the petals of his soul to 
expand like a flower in the spring sunshine. She was like- 
wise attracted by his classic, features and athletic physique 
as well as by the wonderful charm of his mind. Their 
love story, since given to the public in Hawthorne's letters, 
is one of the sweetest and happiest in the annals of literature. 
She gave him encouragement and stimulus and love, and he 
gave her life and home and happiness. Her health improved 
after her marriage, and three children were bom to them, 
Una, Julian, and Rose. 

His life in the "Old Manse." But when Hawthorne met 
Miss Peabody he was not able to support an invalid wife; 
so the engagement ran on for four years before the marriage 
took place in 1842. George Bancroft, in the meantime, used 
his influence to have Hawthorne appointed to the position 




THE OLD MANSE, CONCORD 



174 History of American Literature 

of weigher and ganger at the Boston Custom House. He 
labored at this, to him, unsavory task for two years, and 
then took his savings of one thousand dollars and invested 
them in the impractical social community of Brook Farm, 
a transcendental experiment in which physical labor and 
intellectual activities were to be alternately and equally 
enjoyed. The experiment proved a failure, of course, and 
Hawthorne lost his money. In spite of this serious loss, 
however, he determined now to marry. He took his wife 
to the Old Manse in Concord, the house already made 
famous by Emerson's residence in it, and now made doubly 
so by Hawthorne's occupancy; and there he began the long 
and desperate struggle of making a living by his pen. The 
story of these impecunious years has been fully told by the 
family letters, and the happy way in which the couple met 
their difficulties will always arouse interest. Once Mrs. 
Hawthorne, noticing a large rent in one of her husband's 
garments, remarked that it was strange that they did not 
have more ready money, since her husband was a man of 
such large rents. She fairly worshiped him, and he was as 
devoted to her, and this made these years of poverty not 
only endurable but happy ones. 

"The Scarlet Letter." Friends came to the rescue again, 
and Hawthorne was appointed collector, or surveyor, of the 
port of Salem. This gave him a better immediate income, 
but for a time cut off his literary productivity. He planned 
a larger work on the basis of some old records which he 
found in the office at Salem, but the work did not progress 
satisfactorily. When he announced his removal from office 
in 1849, Mrs. Hawthorne complacently remarked, "Oh, 
then you can write your book!" And when the impractical 
dreamer wanted to know what they could live on while it 
was being written, she disclosed a pile of gold coins which 
she had saved out of her weekly allowance for household 
expenses and hidden away for just such an emergency. The 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 175 

book was written: it was The Scarlet Letter, by common con- 
sent designated as the one absolutely great masterpiece of 
fiction in all American literature. Hawthorne's friend, 
James T. Field, the publisher, came over from Boston 
toward the end of the year and found the germ of the manu- 
script already in shape, and in 1850 the enlarged romance 
was published. It took the public by storm and has ever 
since retained its position as the greatest American novel. 
The story is one of gloom and tragedy. It sets forth the 
gradual purification of one sinner through open confession 
and the slow torture of another through hypocritical con- 
cealment. Hester Prynne bears the scarlet letter A on her 
breast as a punishment for the sin of adultery, while the 
minister, Arthur Dimmesdale, the partner of her crime, 
conceals his guilt and suffers the tortures of the damned 
until, in the tragic climax of the story, he openly confesses 
his sin. One of the mo§t beautiful of all Hawthorne's 
character creations is the innocent, fairy-like Pearl, the 
offspring of the crime. She adds a touch of haunting beauty 
to an otherwise gloomy and depressing tale. 

"The House of the Seven Gables." After the phenomenal 
success of The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne's period of being 
what he called "the obscurest man of letters in America" 
was over. He moved to "the little red cottage" near Lenox 
in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts, and 
here he wrote the second of his four great romances. The 
House of the Seven Gables (1851). Of all Hawthorne's longer 
works this one is by far the most attractive to young readers. 
The theme is the hereditary transmission of sin from genera- 
tion to generation. The scene is laid in the familiar haunts 
of Salem, the very house with its seven gables being still 
pointed out to visitors as the original of Hawthorne's story. 
There is in the realistic portrayal of this quaint old New 
England town and some of its queer inhabitants a touch of 
humor which brightens up the somewhat somber coloring 



176 



History of American Literature 



of the romance ; and the love story of Phoebe Pyncheon and 
Holgrave increases the interest and affords a satisfactory 
solution of the former enmity between the two families. 




THE HOUSE OF SEVEN GABLES, SALEM 

Juvenile books. To the Lenox period belong also those 
delightful books for young readers, The Wonder-Book (1852) 
and Tanglewood Tales (1853), both based on the old Greek 
and Roman hero myths. These stories are by no means 
mere mechanical reproductions of the old classical myths. 
Hawthorne allowed himself great freedom in his treatment, 
and found great pleasure in reminting through his own 
imagination these world-old fables. When we take into 
consideration these two volumes together with Grandfather' s 
Chair (1841), a series of historical tales, and many other 
juvenile stories scattered through his earlier volumes of 
atles, such for example, as "The Snow Image" and "Little 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 177 

Daffydowndilly," we are led to the conclusion that 
Hawthorne's contributions to our juvenile classics are 
very important. 

"The Blithedale Romance.'' During 1852 Hawthorne 
moved his family to West Newton, a suburb of Boston, 
and here he produced his third great novel, The Blithedale 
Romance, reflecting largely his experiences at Brook Farm 
in Roxbury, not very far from West Newton. This is the 
least satisfactory of the four greater romances, but it con- 
tains among others one striking feminine character study, 
that of Zenobia, supposed to be based on that remarkable 
woman, Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 

Life abroad: "The Marble Faun." Hawthorne had not 
yet found the home to suit him, and so he purchased the 
old house of the Alcotts in Concord near Emerson's resi- 
dence, and christened it "The Wayside." Here, in 1852, 
he wrote a campaign life of his old college friend Franklin 
Pierce, who was now a candidate for the presidency. 
Naturally, upon being elected to the presidency. Pierce 
desired to reward his friend and supporter, and consequently 
he appointed Hawthorne to be consul at Liverpool. This 
was a lucrative position, and the income from the ofhce, 
together with the increased returns from his books, put 
Hawthorne and his family above want for the remainder 
of his life. He did not enjoy the work nor the honors of 
his new position, but he went through the routine with 
the same punctilious devotion to duty that he had shown 
in his previous official positions. The literary results of 
this residence abroad were Our Old Home; a Series oj English 
Sketches, published in The Atlantic Monthly some years 
later, and the fourth of his great romances. The Marble 
Faun, written at Rome and published in England under the 
title The Transformed in i860. This is a rather mystical 
story and is not usually pleasing to young readers; but it 
contains many excellent descriptions of points of interest in 
12 



178 History of American Literature 

Rome, and much profound character study, particularly 
of the hero, Donatello, the young Italian who resembles the 
famous old marble statue of a satyr or faun which the 
author found in Rome. 

Hawthorne's later works. After the appearance of The 
Marble Faun, Hawthorne returned to his home in Concord. 
Here he attempted some further literary work, but his 
health was gradually giving way, and the old creative impulse 
was almost gone. He started several romances, among them 
Septimus Felton, Dr. Grimshaw's Secret, and The Dolliver 
Romance, but none of them were satisfactorily completed. 
In a vain search for improvement in health, he went on a 
carriage trip with Franklin Pierce through the mountains of 
New Hampshire. When they reached Portsmouth, his 
strength gave out and he died alone in his room in an inn, 
May 17, 1864. He was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, 
his grave being now marked with a plain marble headstone, 
not more than a foot high, bearing the simple inscription 
"Hawthorne." 

General estimate of Hawthorne's work. Three things 
make Hawthorne's work great — first, the originality and 
spontaneity of his imaginative conceptions; second, the fun- 
damental moral truth and spiritual purity underlying these 
conceptions; and third, the supreme artistry of the form of 
expression in which he has presented these conceptions. 
No writer in America has depended more absolutely and 
more consistently on his own ideas and instincts as to what 
material was best suited to his genius. Hawthorne's work 
is unique because his genius was unique and because he 
allowed it to mature slowly and naturally, without the 
intermixtiu-e of foreign elements or the distraction of foreign 
models. There is no English author with whom we care to 
compare him, for he was too original, too much himself to 
be like any one of them. In the second place, while he 
dealt with sin and the htunan conscience and some of the 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 179 

darker aspects of life, he handled these problems with the 
utmost purity of conception. The Scarlet Letter, for example, 
deals with an abhorred sin, but there never was a purer 
book nor a more powerful appeal for Christlike charity 
toward those who have sinned and felt all the awful pangs of 
expiation and the final purification of character through 
repentance and steadfast resistance. So it is with all Haw- 
thorne's works; there is not a word of sacrilege, nor a hint 
of encouragement to the evil-doer, nor a cause for a blush 
on the cheek of the purest-minded maiden. Finally, Haw- 
thorne is a supreme artist. His manner of expression sits 
as naturally on him as his own features. There is no strut, 
no superficial veneer, no painfully evident striving after 
effect, no trick or artifice; on the contrary every word and 
phrase is as natural and easy and spontaneous as the con- 
ception which gave it birth. The picturesqueness, the vivid 
character portrayal, the music and rhythm of his prose 
cadences, the apt and precise diction, the dominant tone of 
spirituality, the suggestive other- worldliness — in short, the 
pure art of his prose style — all this undoubtedly places him 
in the first rank of American literary artists.^ 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Whenever American 
poets are mentioned, the name that flashes at once into the 
mind at the head of the list is that of Henry Wadsworth 
Longfellow (1807-1882). Like Washington, but in a literary 
rather than in a political sense, he is "first in the hearts of 
his countrymen. " He has produced a larger body of poetry 
than has any other of our poets, his poems are more famil- 
iarly read and quoted than are the works of any of our other 
writers, and he has been more widely translated and more 
prominently recognized abroad, particularly in England, as 
the most representative, if not the most original and power- 
ful, of our poets. 

iThe best life of Hawthorne is by George E. Woodberry in the American 
Men of Letters Series. Henry James, Jr., has also written a brilliant 
criticism in the English Men of Letters Series. 



i8o History of American Literature 

His youth and education. Longfellow is the only one of 
the more distinguished New England men of letters born 
outside the present borders of Massachusetts. Portland, 
Maine, his birthplace, was really a part of Massachusetts 
at the time of his birth, February 27, 1807. He studied 
at Bowdoin College, and was graduated in 1825 along with 
Nathaniel Hawthorne and several other men who rose to 
prominence. Longfellow's father was a lawyer, and he had 
proposed to give his son a legal education after he finished 
college; but in his senior year the young man confessed in a 
letter to his father his aspiration for future eminence in litera- 
ture. "Whether Natiire has given me any capacity for 
knowledge or not, she has at any rate given me a strong 
predilection for literary pursuits, and I am almost confident 
in believing that if I can ever rise in the world, it must be 
by the exercise of my talent in the wide field of literature. 
With such a belief, I must say that I am unwilHng to engage 
in the study of law." 

Longfellow' s first period oj European travel and study. 
After graduation at Bowdoin, he had asked the privilege of 
spending a year in studying what was then called belles- 
lettres, or polite literature, at Harvard College. His father 
consented, but the trustees of Bowdoin College offered the 
young graduate a professorship in modem languages on the 
condition that he should go abroad for study at his ov/n 
expense. His father furnished the money, and the pro- 
spective professor, then but nineteen, sailed for Europe. He 
spent three years studying the languages and literatures of 
France, Spain, Italy, and Germany. This contact with 
European literature and culture was the best possible 
preparation for his later work as a poet. 

His work as a teacher: second trip abroad. He returned 
to Bowdoin and began his work as a teacher in 1829. He 
had not only to do all the work of directing his classes in 
the various foreign languages, but also to prepare elementary 




From a painting by Healy in the possession 
of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts 



HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW 



1 82 History of American Literature 

textbooks for the guidance of his pupils. He did his work 
well, and in 1834 he was called to succeed George Ticknor 
as Smith professor of French and Spanish at Harvard College. 
In April, 1835, he sailed again to Europe for another year 
and a half of study. In 1831 he had married Miss Mary 
Potter of Portland, and he took his wife along with him. 
Her health was delicate, and she died in Rotterdam, Holland, 
some months later. She is fittingly commemorated in the 
poem "Footsteps of Angels." 

His professorship at Harvard. Partly to bury himself 
from his grief and partly in preparation for his future work 
at Harvard, the poet plunged into the study of German 
language and literature. He made good progress, and by 
the summer of 1836 he was ready to return to America to 
enter upon his professorship. When he went to Cambridge, 
he was directed to the home of Mrs. Craigie, who owned the 
famous old Craigie House where General Washington once 
had his headquarters during the Revolutionary War. 
Mrs. Craigie at first refused to accept him, taking him for a 
college student, but when she found out that he was the 
new professor and the author of Outre Mer she gave him 
rooms in her home. When Longfellow married Miss Frances 
Appleton in 1843, his father-in-law made them a present of 
Craigie House, which has since become a sort of literary 
shrine for pilgrims from all over the world. There Long- 
fellow lived the remainder of his life. After eighteen years 
of service he resigned his professorship to James Russell 
Lowell, but he continued to live in Cambridge and take a 
lively interest in the affairs of the university. 

Longfellow' s prose. Longfellow's prose works are Outre 
Mer, "Beyond the Sea" (1833), a sort of imitation of 
Irving 's Sketch Book with scenes drawn from France, Spain, 
and Italy; Hyperion (1839), a sentimentalized romance 
interspersed with German legends, translation, and bits of 
description; and Kavanagh (1849), a realistic novel of rural 



184 History of American Literature 

New England life. These have been overshadowed by the 
greater popularity of his poetical works, but the last two in 
particular are well worth a perusal, especially while one is 
young. The style is perhaps too highly colored and the 
stories too sentimental for the more robust modem taste, 
but these works give Longfellow a right to a place in the 
history of American romantic prose. 

Longjellow's early poems. The history of Longfellow's 
poetical production begins at least in his thirteenth year 
when the Portland Gazette published his "Battle of Lovell's 
Pond." He continued to write poetry from this time until 
his death in 1882. His first volume of verse. Voices of the 
Night, was published in 1839; in 1841 Ballads and Other 
Poems appeared; and in 1845, The Belfry of Bruges and 
Other Poems. In the first of these volumes appeared sach 
favorites as "A Psalm of Life," "The Light of Stars," 
"The Beleaguered City," and "Hymn to the Night"; in 
the second "The Wreck of the Hesperus," "Maidenhood," 
"The Village Blacksmith," "The Skeleton in Armor," "The 
Rainy Day," and "Excelsior"; in the third "The Bridge," 
"The Old Clock on the Stairs," and "The Arrow and the 
Song. ' ' Other volumes of poetry appeared from time to time, 
up to his death, but these have now all been included in his 
collected works and need not be mentioned separately here. 

"The Building of the Ship." The volume called The 
Seaside and the Fireside appeared late in 1849, the opening 
poem being "The Building of the Ship," Longfellow's chief 
contribution to our national patriotic poetry. It is a master- 
piece of its kind, for it may be said of the poet as of the 
builder of the ship, 

His heart was in his work, 

And the heart giveth grace unto every art. 

Longfellow takes up the building of a ship from the planning 
to the final latmching, and by a skilful introduction of a 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 185 

dedicatory speech by the old master, makes an extended 
comparison of the whole with human life; and then, at the 
climax rises to a magnificent conclusion in which he com- 
pares our government to a stately ship under sail, a passage 
which every one should memorize. 

Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State! 

Sail on, O UNION, strong and great! 

Humanity with all its fears. 

With all the hopes of future years. 

Is hanging breathless on thy fate ! 

We know what Master laid thy keel, 

What Workman wrought thy ribs of steel, 

Who made each mast, and sail, and rope. 

What anvils rang, what hammers beat, 

In what a forge and what a heat 

Were shaped the anchors of thy hope ! 

Fear not each sudden sound and shock, 

'T is of the wave and not the rock; 

'T is but the flapping of a sail. 

And not a rent made by the gale! 

In spite of rock and tempest's roar. 

In spite of false lights on the shore. 

Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea! 

Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee, 

Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears. 

Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, 

Are all with thee, — are all with thee. 

' 'Evangeline. ' ' The enthusiastic and widespread reception 
accorded these early volumes led the poet to essay greater 
themes. His mind was steeped in European literature, 
but more and more he w^as turning to American life, legend, 
and history for his subjects. In 1847 appeared what is now 
recognized as the greatest of all his works, Evangeline, the 
epic-idyl of the Anglo-French conflict for supremacy on 
the North American continent. We have no hesitancy in 
pronouncing Evangeline one of the supreme poetical treasures 
of o\ir literature. Every American school child cons its 



i86 



History of American Literature 



long, musical hexameters with pleasure and profit. The 
story is a beautiful one, and Longfellow has decorated it 




From the painting by Thomas Praed 



EVANGELINE 



with innumerable exquisite figures of speech, rich, native 
American color, and heart-moving sentiment. The haunt- 
ing melody of the "deep-voiced neighboring ocean" and 
the "mournful tradition, still sung by the pines of the forest" 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 187 

lingers in every ear as a sort of perpetual benediction. 
The characters, too, stand out in bold relief in our memories 
— the gentle and patient Evangeline, the restless and unsat- 
isfied Gabriel, the heart-broken Benedict Bellefontaine, the 
faithful Father Felician, the stout-hearted, fiery Basil, and 
merry Michael the fiddler. All in all, Evangeline is the 
most successful narrative poem in our literature. 

Longfellow' s other great narrative poems. Other great 
narrative works followed, such as Hiawatha (1855), The 
Courtship of Miles Standi sh (1858), and Tales of a Wayside 
Inn (1863). Some have pronounced Hiawatha the most 
original poetical contribution to our literature, and others 
have hailed it as the only truly American epic. It presents 
an idealized picture of the American Indian and is a won- 
derful storehouse of native myth and legend. Its peculiar 
trochaic octosyllabic rhythm, borrowed from the Finnish 
national epic Kalevala, gives it an antique flavor, and its 
rich massing of Indian folklore helps to make it a perennial 
favorite with young readers. But in spite of its originality, 
its aboriginal American coloring, and its appealing beauty, 
we are inclined to rank it below Evangeline in artistic power 
and fundamental human appeal. The Courtship of Miles 
Standish is deservedly popiilar, though Longfellow does not 
seem to handle the hexameter in this happier-toned poem 
so well as he did in the more melancholy and solemn-toned 
Evangeline. It is interesting to know that Longfellow traced 
his ancestry on his mother's side back to John and Priscilla 
Alden, the hero and heroine of the romance in The Courtship 
of Miles Standish. Tales of a Wayside Inn is modeled on 
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The characters gathered in the 
old inn at Sudbury near Cambridge are described in the 
Prelude very much as Chaucer's Canterbury pilgrims are 
presented in the Prologue. The first of the tales, "Paul 
Revere 's Ride," told by the landlord, has proved to be the 
most^ popular, though the poet's first tale, "The Birds of 



1 88 History of American Literature 

Killingworth," is more poetical, being appraised by Emer- 
son as "serene, happy, and immortal." 

Longfellow's works in dramatic form. Although Long- 
fellow wrote some dramas, he did not possess a strong dra- 
matic gift. The Spanish Student , a play in three acts, appeared 
in 1843. With a beautiful Spanish dancing girl as heroine 
and a dashing Spanish student as hero, one might think that 
the poet would have produced a good strong play; but such 
is not the case. It is a dramatic poem or closet drama rather 
than a good acting play. And so it is with Longfellow's 
other attempts at dramatization. The Golden Legend 
(185 1), later included as the second part of the Christus 
trilogy, is in dramatic form, but it is merely a poem on 
an old German legend, interpreting rather beautifully 
some phases of medieval life. The other two parts of the 
Christus, namely. The New England Tragedies (1868) and 
The Divine Tragedy (1872), are now ranked as practical 
failures in spite of the high estimate which the poet put 
upon this work of his later years. The Masque of Pandora 
is another dramatic work. It was put on the stage in Boston 
in 1 88 1, but it failed to attract audiences. 

His translation of Dante. The last large work done by 
Longfellow was his excellent translation of Dante's Divina 
Commedia. He had contemplated this task for some years. 
and had done something on it, but it was not until after the 
death of his wife that he set himself seriously to complete 
the translation. He finally published it in 1870, prefixing 
to each of the three parts two original sonnets of surpassing 
beauty. The personal reference to the loss of his wife in 
the first of these sonnets is particularly pathetic. Her 
dress caught fire, and before her husband could put out the 
flames she was burned so badly that she died within a short 
time. 

His last visit to Europe: later honors. Longfellow made his 
last visit to Europe in 1 868 . He was received everywhere with. 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 189 

enthusiasm. In England he met many celebrated literary 
and public men, was invited to dine with the queen, and was 




From a painting by A. Fredericks 
PRISCILLA AND JOHN ALDEN 

given an honorary degree by Cambridge University. It is 
said that his works were as well known in England as Tenny- 
son's and naturally the masses of the people, as well as the 
notable persons, were glad to welcome one who had given 
them so much pleasure. And at home he was similarly 



iQO History of American Literature 

honored. On his seventy-second birthday, the Cambridge 
school children presented to him a chair made from the 
wood of "'the spreading chestnut tree" of "The Village 
Blacksmith" fame, and the schools of the whole country 
celebrated his seventy-fifth birthday. He died on March 
24, 1882, and was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, 
Cambridge. Longfellow is the only American poet who has 
been honored with a memorial in the Poet's Corner^ in 
Westminster Abbey. 

A general estimate of Longfellow. We usually say that 
Longfellow is the most popular of our poets, and yet he is 
not an American of the most characteristic type. He lived 
in an academic atmosphere all his life, and he represented 
the older European culture more than he did the fresh, 
vigorous American life. He knew books and life through 
books better than he knew men and life through actual 
contact with the busy world. But he was by no means a 
recluse; in fact, he was conspicuously generous in giving his 
time and personality to the entertaimnent of Americans and 
foreigners who sought him out. And it is said that his 
doors were never closed against the children. But after 
all, he spent his life largely amid books — writing, teaching, 
reading, absorbing the literatures of many nations. He 
felt deeply, but not passionately, and he controlled his 
emotions perfectly, both in life and in his poetry. He was 
no eager reformer or wild devotee burning with the white 
heat of enthusiasm and passion, but a calm, sober-minded, 
peace-loving, home-loving bard. "Although he is not 
necessarily among the twelve greatest poets of the world, 
he is incontestably a great benefactor and a great man." 

An answer to Longfellow's critics. During recent years 



iThe Longfellow bust was subscribed for by the poet's English admirers in 
1884. A few years later a fine medallion in honor of James Russell Lowell 
as American Minister to the Court of St. James was placed in the Chapter 
House of the Abbey. 



192 History of American Literature 

there has been a tendency among some of the more sophis- 
ticated critics to speak slightingly of Longfellow's genius. 
They accuse him of being over-moral, sentimental, simple, 
commonplace, unimaginative. They admit the popularity 
and power of his work so far as the general public is con- 
cerned, but they immediately dodge behind the insinuating 
query, "Is it art?" To all such critics we reply that to 
touch the hearts of a whole people, to inspire youth and 
comfort age, to express the profoundest ideals of the indi- 
vidual and the national life in pleasing and enduring literary 
form is art of the only kind worthy of attention. It is to 
be hoped that the time will not soon come when American 
youths shall be robbed of the pleasure and inspiration that 
come to them from reading the simple, heart -moving poems 
of Henry W. Longfellow.^ 

John Greenleaf Whittier. John Greenleaf Whittier (1807- 
1892) has been called " The Poet Laureate of New England," 
"The Quaker Poet," "The Burns of America." Any one 
of these titles may be aptly applied to him, but perhaps the 
first is most suggestive of his real service to American 
literature. He is called the Burns of America because, like 
the Scotch poet, he was born on a farm and reared amid the 
usual isolation and hardships incident to farm life in his day, 
and because, like Bums, he wrote most successfully about 
the things immediately connected with this rural life into 
which he was bom. But he lacked the Scotch singer's 
alertness for things of sense, his fiery passion, his keen ear 
for music, and hence in lyric power he falls far below the 
peasant bard. He is called the Quaker poet because he 
voiced the deepest religious moods of that particular sect. 
He was bom a Quaker, and clung to this quiet, self-denying 

^The standard life of Longfellow is that by his brother, Samuel Longfellow. 
This three-volume book contains a great many letters and extracts from 
Longfellow's Journals, and is a storehouse of information about the poet. 
A good short life is that by E. S. Robertson in the Great Writers Series. 




JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER 



13 



194 History of American Literature 

form of religion throughout his hfe. He inherited from 
his ancestors that strict conscience and deeply religious 
nature which he poured forth in his hymns and moral odes. 
In fact, his sense for morality was so strong that it not 
infrequently overshadowed and obscured what little instinct 
he possessed for pure art. But above all he was, and is 
still, the poet laureate of New England life. He has taken 
the local legends and ballads and enshrined them in perma- 
nent art forms. He has painted the most perfect pictures 
of the rigid New England climate, and of the exquisite New 
England rural landscape, its hills and valleys, its fields and 
flowers, its coasts and rivers. He has given the most accu- 
rate portraits of the native New England population in 
all the simplicity, purity, and charm of that unsophisticated 
class of which he was himself a member. 

The Whittier household. Whittier was born December 17, 
1807, near East Haverhill, a small country village in north- 
east Massachusetts. He has given us in "Snow-Bound" a 
broad, sweeping winter picture of his birthplace, the old 
homestead built by his early Puritan ancestor, Thomas 
Whittier ; and a minutely drawn summer picture of the same 
spot in "Telling the Bees" and other personal poems. All 
the members of the family are mentioned and faithfully 
drawn in "Snow-Bound" — the father and mother, John 
Whittier and Abigail Haney, Uncle Moses Whittier, Aunt 
Mercy Hussey, the brother, Matthew Franklin Whittier, 
and the two sisters Mary and Elizabeth. Besides these, 
one of the village schoolmasters, George Haskell, and Miss 
Harriet Livermore, that "half-welcome guest," are also 
included in the family circle of the particular week when 
the family were snowbound. 

Whittier' s early school life. Whittier's boyhood and early 
surroundings are interesting because they show what can 
come out of many a country home where there are energy 
and perseverance and ambition in the hearts of boys and 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 195 

girls similarly situated. The school advantages were mea- 
ger. Only a few months in the year were the children 
privileged to attend the district school. There were few 
books in the homes, but the few in the Whittier household 
were mostly well-chosen religious books. John Greenleaf 
made the best of his opportunities for an education, however, 
and he learned much that was valuable to him, both in school 
and on the farm. He showed at an early age his propensity 
for poetry, making on his slate rimes on the people he knew 
and the books he read. One of his teachers, Joshua Coffin, 
later immortalized in the poem "To my Old Schoolmaster," 
one day read to the Whittier family some of Burns 's songs. 
The lad was enchanted. So eager was he for more of this 
delightful Scotch verse that the teacher offered to leave the 
volume with him for a few days. He conned the hard 
Scotch dialect until he could read it with ease, and from 
that time on he felt that he, too, wanted to become a poet. 
In a later poem on Bums he acknowledges his debt. 

New light on home-seen Nature beamed, 

New glory over Woman; 
And daily life and duty seemed 

No longer poor and common. 

His first published poem. After school time the boy was 
put to work at the hard tasks of the farm, but he was not 
particularly strong, and once he injured himself, so that 
thereafter he was not expected to undertake the very 
heaviest tasks. He took up the trade of making shoes, and 
this enabled him a little later on to earn part of his expenses 
for a term in the Haverhill Academy. He had been writing 
more or less ambitious verse ever since the volume of Burns 
fell into his hands. His elder sister Mary thought some of 
his efforts worthy of being printed, and so, without her 
brother's knowledge, she sent one of them, "The Exile's 
Departure," to The Newbury Free Press, a weekly journal 



196 



History of American Literature 



of which the young WilHam Lloyd Garrison, who afterwards 
became a famous leader of the abolitionists, was the editor. 




WHITTIER'S BIRTHPLACE. HAVERHILL 

The verses were accepted, and when his sister showed him 
his composition in print in the poets' corner, he was so over- 
come with emotion that for some minutes he could not go 
on with the task of fence mending in which he was at the 
moment engaged. He admitted in later years that no 
keener pleasure ever came into his life. 

Completing his education. Fortunately for him, the young 
editor of the Free Press sought him out, asked for more 
contributions, and urged his parents to send the boy off to 
the newly established Academy at Haverhill. The father 
objected, for he did not think there was much in education 
and literature so far as making an honest living was con- 
cerned; but the good mother joined in the persuasions, and 
the boy was permitted to go to school provided he would 
earn his way. He went into Mr. Garrison's home, and by 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 197 

means of money earned in making slippers at twenty-five 
cents a pair, he paid the extra expense for his first term in 
the Academy. He spent one other term in this school, 
earning the money this time partly by teaching and partly 
by clerical work. And this was the extent of his formal 
education. He never would have been the educated man he 
became, however, had he not been a great reader, and had 
he not kept up his studies practically all his life. Every 
one of the other prominent New England writers went to 
college, and all except Thoreau had the advantage of travel 
in Europe; but Whittier never saw inside a college during 
his youth, and never quite managed to fulfill his desire for 
a trip to Europe. He lived and died in New England, rarely 
putting his foot outside his native section. 

Whittier' s attachment to the cause of abolition. It is need- 
less to follow minutely the political and journaHstic career 
of Whittier. Suffice it to say that early in life he attached 
himself to what was then an unpopular cause, — namely, 
the abolition of slavery, — and he devoted his best talents to 
this cause through thick and thin. He gave up his hope for 
political preferment by espousing this cause. He believed 
it to be a righteous one, and he was doubtless happier in his 
poverty and political neglect than he could possibly have 
been as United States senator, an office to which he might 
well have aspired had he been willing to turn his back on the 
cause of abolition. Whittier wrote many articles, pub- 
lished many anti-slavery poems, edited several journals, and 
did much real service for the cause by his shrewd political 
management and his untiring devotion to the mean and 
exacting drudgery of a movement like the one in which he had 
centered his whole being. 

Whittier' s final success. During these years he was barely 
able to make a living; his wants were simple, however, and 
he did not care for wealth or preferment. He never married, 
and so he had but a small family to care for, namely, his 



iqS History of American Literature 

mother and younger sister, Elizabeth. He said, that he 
managed to live in spite of the fact that practically all of 
the literary channels were closed to him on account of his 
attachment to an unpopular cause. Just prior to and after 
the Civil War, however, when the cause for which he had so 
long battled became popular and finally triumphed, he came 
into his own, and the very best literary magazines were open 
to him. The Atlantic Monthly under the editorship of 
James Russell Lowell and James T. Field was particularly 
favorable to him, and he published many of his best poems 
in this magazine. His works became so popular after the 
publication of "Snow-Bound" in 1866 that he was enabled 
to live in comfort, though not in luxury, during the remainder 
of his life. He had given up his old homestead near East 
Haverhill many years before, and had moved to Amesbury, 
a town not many miles away, and here he spent the latter 
half of his life. Just about the time of his death (September 
7, 1892), the old homestead near Haverhill was purchased 
and refurnished as nearly as possible in the style of the 
days of his youth, and it is now open to visitors from all 
over the country. 

Classification of his poetry. Whittier's poetry may be 
discussed in these three groups: (i) his slavery and war- 
time poems, or "Voices of Freedom"; (2) his New England 
poems, including his incomparable idyls, his reflective and 
religious poems, his songs of labor, his nature lyrics, and his 
personal poems; (3) his narrative verse, including the ballads, 
most of which are lit up with New England coloring. 

His poems on slavery. The slavery and war-time poems 
were the most cherished products of his pen before, during, 
and immediately after the terrible war which finally settled 
the question of slavery. The best of these are "Ichabod, " 
a bold piece of invective, written more in sorrow than in 
anger, on the occasion of the defection of Daniel Webster 
from the cause of abolition; "Barbara Frietchie," sometimes 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 199 

ranked as the best ballad of the Civil War, but a poem 
marred by an unjust reference to the great southern leader 
"Stonewall" Jackson; "Massachusetts to Virginia," a 
violent and powerful outburst against the fugitive slave law ; 
and " Laus Deo, " a magnificent paean of gratitude and praise 
upon the passage of the constitutional amendment forever 
abolishing slavery from our country. 

The New England poems. The second class of poems, the 
New England group, really gives Whit tier a high rank 
among our American singers and justifies his appellation of 
" Poet Laureate of New England. " The masterpiece among 
these is " Snow-Bound : A Winter Idyl," the almost perfect 
picture of the New England rural home. If he had written 
nothing else, this one poem would give him a just claim to 
immortality. The scenes are vividly described, the por- 
traits are wonderfully clear-cut and distinct, the moral tone 
is strong and sincere, and best of all, the very atmosphere 
of home seems to breathe from every line of the poem. As 
Professor Carpenter justly observes, "He, this old man who 
had been an East Haverhill boy, describes his homestead, 
his well-sweep, his brook, his family circle, his schoolmaster, 
apparently intent on naught but the complete accuracy of 
his narrative, and lo! such is his art that he had drawn the 
one imperishable picture of that bright winter life in that 
strange clime." Other familiar poems similar in style, but 
not approaching "Snow-Bound" in beauty or completeness, 
are "Maud Muller," "Mabel Martin," "The Barefoot Boy," 
"My Playmate," "In School-Days," and the Prelude to 
"Among the Hills." The purely personal and occasional 
poems and the nature lyrics are too numerous to be men- 
tioned except by bare examples, such as "The Poet and the 
Children," referring to Longfellow's seventy-fifth birthday 
celebration, "The Trailing Arbutus," "The Frost Spirit," 
"The Last Walk in Autumn." There are over five hundred 
closely printed double-columned pages in his collected works, 



200 History of American Literature 

and at least half of the volume belongs distinctly in what I 
have called the New England poems, and this is the cream of 
Whittier's poetry. In fact, Whittier, like Milton in the days 
of the Commonwealth, was so burdened with a great political 
cause during all his early years that he could not produce 
really great poetry. The poems written after he reached 
middle age are by far the best products of his life; the very 
highest work of his genius came after he was fifty-nine. 

Whittier's narrative poems. In narrative verse, Whittier's 
first serious effort was to save the rich mine of legend and 
romance which he saw at his hand in the records of early 
New England history. His volume Legends of New England 
in Prose and Verse (183 1) is largely narrative in character. 
Another poem with an Indian hero, "Mogg Megone," 
Whittier later classed as a stiff, unnatural sort of poetical 
performance. The Tent on the Beach contains many poems, 
almost all of them narrative in character. "Among the 
Hills" may also be classed in this category. The number of 
Whittier's ballads is large, including such favorites as 
"Barclay of Ury, " "Skipper Ireson's Ride," "Telling the 
Bees," "Cobbler Keezar's Vision," "Amy Wentworth, " 
and "King Solomon and the Ants. " It has been said that 
Whittier is our truest ballad writer, not even excepting 
Longfellow. If not so swift in action nor so perfect in 
imitative tone, Whittier's ballads are truer to locality and 
more thoroughly native than Longfellow's.^ 

Oliver Wendell Holmes. If Lowell is our chief critical 
essayist and Emerson our greatest philosophical thinker, 
Oliver Wendell Holmes (i 809-1 894) is no less surely to be 
classed with Irving as one of our two greatest informal 
essayists. We think of Holmes first as a humorist and the 



iThe standard life of Whittier is that by Samuel T. Pickard, who has 
also written a delightful additional volume called WhiUier Land. A good 
brief biography is that by Geroge Rice Carpenter in the American Men of 
Letters Series. 



•^fK-^ ^. 




From an engraving 



OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 



202 History of American Literature 

author of The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, that unique 
book of informal, chatty talks or essays. But he is also a 
poet, if not of the very first rank among our American 
authors, certainly very near to it, for two or three of his 
lyrics, as well as much of his inimitable humorous poetry, 
will bear comparison with the best of their kind. More- 
over, he is the most human, the most intimately personal, 
and the most consistently optimistic of all the New England 
school, and hence he is the favorite author of thousands of 
readers who would not think of classing his poetry or even 
his prose as the greatest produced in America. Though he 
was not autocratic in his disposition, we may call him the 
beloved "Autocrat" of American literature. 

The span of his life. Holmes was born at Cambridge, 
Massachusetts, August 29, 1809, just two years later than 
Longfellow and Whittier, in the same year with Poe and 
Lincoln, and ten years earlier than Lowell and Whitman. 
He outlived practically all of his literary contemporaries, 
being literally "the last leaf on the tree." He died in 1894, 
two years later than Whittier and Whitman, twelve years 
later than Longfellow and Emerson, and forty-two years 
later than Edgar Allan Poe. It seems almost unbelievable 
that Poe, who was born in the same year as Holmes, had 
been dead eight years before Holmes began his famous 
"Autocrat" papers in The Atlantic Monthly. 

His ancestry. He was descended from what he called the 
"Brahmin caste" of New England, on both sides of the 
house. His father, Abiel Holmes, the pastor of the First 
Congregational Church of Cambridge, traced his line of 
descent even beyond the John Holmes who came from 
England to Connecticut in 1686. His mother, Sarah Wen- 
dell, was the daughter of Oliver Wendell of Boston, for whom 
the poet was named, and she was directly connected with the 
Dudleys, Bradstreets, Quincys, and other distinguished 
New England families. These facts are mentioned because 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 203 

Dr. Holmes himself thoroughly believed in heredity and had 
much to say about it in his works. 

Holmes's education. His education was the best to be 
had in America in his day. After a few years in an ele- 
mentary school, he went to Phillips Academy, Andover, 
and from there he entered Harvard College in 1825, the 
year that Longfellow and Hawthorne graduated at Bowdoin 
College in Maine. He was already a skilled versifier, 
having made a metrical translation of Vergil's Aeneid when 
he was at Andover, and he was selected as class poet. "The 
famous class of '29" has become so partly because a number 
of distinguished men came from it, but largely from the 
fact that Holmes was its poet and for nearly a half century 
read delightful poems at the annual class reunions. After 
graduation Holmes said that he flirted with Blackstone 
and Chitty for a year in anticipation of becoming a lawyer, 
but his scientific turn of mind led him finally to decide in 
favor of medicine. After studying in Boston for a short time, 
he went abroad and spent two years, mostly in Paris, in prepa- 
ration for his profession. He visited England, Italy, and 
Switzerland before his return in 1835, and the next year 
he took his degree at Harvard Medical College. He located 
at Boston, the city which he loved devotedly and which he 
once playfully called "the hub of the solar system," and 
when he prepared to hang out his professional sign he charac- 
teristically proposed to write beneath his name the motto 
"Small fevers thankfully received." 

Holmes as a scientific man. Holmes did not like the emo- 
tional strain of the sick room and operating table, but he 
was an enthusiastic investigator and a careful observer of 
the science of medicine. He was gradually building up a 
practice, but he rather joyfully relinquished it for the most 
part, when, in 1847, some years after a short incumbency 
in the same chair at Dartmouth College, he was elected 
professor of anatomy and physiology at Harvard. He 



204 History of American Literature 

held the position thirty-five years as professor and twelve 
more years as professor emeritus, and during all the time of 
his active duties he was considered the most popular lecturer 
in the Harvard Medical College. Holmes was not a pro- 
found scientist, but he was an ingenious man, and he per- 
fected several mechanical devices of a scientific character, 
among them the stereoscope, that popular and entertaining 
little binocular device by which pictured objects are made 
to stand out almost as distinctly as they do in real life. 

His home life. In 1840 he married Miss Amelia Lee 
Jackson, who proved to be an ideal mate for a man like 
Dr. Holmes. She encouraged and helped him and protected 
him in many ways, so that he was enabled to do the work 
that he was born for. They had three children, all of whom 
lived to maturity, and Mrs. Holmes herself lived to within a 
few years of the poet's death. In the atmosphere of his 
companions he was always happy. He was a charming con- 
versationalist both at home and in public. It is said that 
he was the life of every social group in which he appeared. 
Holmes's lyrics. Holmes's poetical work falls into two 
classes — his serious lyrics and his humorous and occasional 
pieces. He wrote three or four supremely excellent lyrics, 
and upon these his poetic fame chiefly rests — "Old Iron- 
sides," "The Last Leaf," "The Chambered Nautilus," and 
"Voiceless." He composed some longer serious poems, such 
as "The Rhymed Lesson," otherwise called "Urania," and 
"Wind Clouds and Snow Drifts," but these have never met 
the hearty response of his shorter and more perfect lyrics. 
"The Last Leaf" and "The Chambered Nautilus" deserv- 
edly rank among the very finest lyrics in the language. 
No collection is complete without them, and they are always 
found among the chief decorative gems of every anthology 
or golden treasury of American songs. One of the most 
frequently quoted passages in all American poetry is the 
last stanza of "The Chambered Nautilus." 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 205 

Holmes's humorous and occasional verse. It is his humorous 
and occasional verse that, after all, gives Holmes his dis- 
tinctive place in our memory. Here he is perfectly natural 
and spontaneous. Lowell correctly characterized Holmes as 

"A Leyden jar always full charged, from which flit 
Electrical tingles of hit after hit." 

The mere mentioning of such titles as "The Deacon's 
Masterpiece," "The Height of the Ridiculous," "Content- 
ment," "My Aunt," and many others, arouses humorous 
sensations of a delightful kind. Holmes had a way of giving 
thdse light and whimsical hiimorous pieces a more universal 
and lasting quality than such literature usually attains. 
His Harvard class poems are full of fun and good fellowship, 
and his local and occasional poems are the best that we have 
of their kind; but they will doubtless be read less and less 
as time goes on, for occasional poetry inevitably fades with 
age. Some of the best of Holmes's poems read at the 
annual reunions of the class of 1829 are "The Boys" (1859), 
"Bill and Joe" (1868), and "The Shadows" (1880). 

It was not until late in 1857 that Holmes attained any- 
thing like permanent fame as an author. In this year The 
Atlantic Monthly was founded, and Holmes was engaged 
to write regularly for it. He suggested the name of the new 
magazine, and it is not too much to say that it was his 
contributions that largely gave this periodical its dominant 
character and its immediate popular hold on the public. We 
must give Lowell the credit, however, for making it a con- 
tingent condition of his editorship that Holmes should write 
for the magazine, and not the least of Lowell's services 
in furthering American literature was the stimulus he gave 
Holmes, whom, as the latter shrewdly said, he woke "from 
a kind of literary lethargy." Lowell later said that Holmes 
was a "sparkling mountain stream which had been dammed 
up and was only awaiting an outlet into the Atlantic." 



2o6 History oj American Literature 

The Breakfast Table series. A book that is as surely 
marked for immortality as any single volume in our literature 
is The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table: Or Every Man His 
Own Boswell. It is a series of what William Dean Howells 
called "dramatized essays," with a fairly thick sprinkling 
of poems, serious and humorous, to add variety to the 
Autocrat's dramatic monologues. The subtitle indicates 
that Holmes is really writing the history of his own thoughts, 
showing us just how his own mind works. The three vol- 
umes which make up the Breakfast Table series, The Auto- 
crat (1858), The Professor (1859), and The Poet (187 1),. 
together with the belated Over the Teacups (1888), which 
really belongs in the same group, certainly give us a most 
satisfying portrait of the genial Autocrat's mind. There 
is in these books much real intellectual pabulum, but cer- 
tainly no formal philosophy. Holmes was simply giving 
us the best observations he had been able to make on life. 
"Talk about those subjects you have had long in your 
mind," he said, "and listen to what others say about sub- 
jects you have studied but recently. Knowledge and 
timber should not be much used till they are seasoned." 
And again when he was asked how long it took him to 
write the Autocrat papers, he replied that it took him all 
his life up to the time he wrote them down. The easy 
conversational tone, the vividly drawn character sketches, 
the clear thought, the scintillating wit and delightfully 
good-natured humor, the unbounded optimism, and the 
uncompromising hostility toward tyranny, narrowness, and 
sham, make the whole Autocrat series one of the few really 
original contributions to nineteenth-century literature. 
The Autocrat is undoubtedly the best of the series, because 
it was the first, and because it contains the cream of Holmes's 
spontaneous wit and thought. The other three volumes 
are all worth reading, and some discerning critics have said 
that, though more serious and subdued in tone, they are 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 207 

not less entertaining to the thoughtful reader. The Autocrat 
more than likely, however, has a hundred readers to one for 
any of the other volumes. It is a book to be dipped into, 
to be taken up at odd moments when one wants to hear a 
genial, witty, healthy personality talk for his own and his 
reader's amusement and profit. It is true that the slight 
thread of romance developed between the Autocrat and 
the timid schoolmistress leads one to read steadily through 
the last four papers; but after one perusal, the book is to 
be glanced at for pure pleasure rather than read straight 
through. 

Holmes's novels. In The Professor at the Breakfast Table, 
Holmes had introduced a more prominent romantic thread 
to his series of talks. This led him to write his first novel, 
Elsie Venner (1861). Two other novels followed, The Guard- 
ian Angel (1867) and .4 Mortal Antipathy (1888). Like 
the Autocrat series these were fi.rst published serially in 
The Atlantic Monthly. Holmes called them "medicated 
novels," because they are more or less concerned with prob- 
lems pertaining to the science of medicine. The first deals 
with the experiences of Elsie Venner, who was endowed with 
peculiar powers of serpentine fascination and hypnotic 
influence because of the bite of a rattlesnake suffered by 
her mother just before Elsie was born. The Guardian 
Angel, said to be the most artistic of the three, deals with the 
problem of heredity; and A Mortal Antipathy traces the 
cause, growth, and cure of a strong antipathy or hatred 
against woman in a man's life. As works of fiction, these 
novels do not rise above mediocrity, but, like everything 
that Holmes put his hand to, they are well written and 
deserving of at least a cursory perusal. 

His two biographies. The last field in which Holmes 
employed his gift for authorship was in biography. He 
wrote A Memoir of John Lothrop Motley (1879) and The Life 
of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1884). These are excellent and 



2o8 History of American Literature 

painstaking works. It seems strange that Holmes should 
have been attracted to such a profound and dignified per- 
sonality as Emerson's, but when we examine into Holmes's 
real philosophy of life, we find that it is not altogether unlike 
Emerson's. At any rate Holmes produced a remarkably 
sympathetic and illuminating study of the great thinker, 
essayist, and poet. 

His trip to Europe. In 1886 Holmes took a pleasure trip 
to Europe, which he presented in his happy, personal style 
in Our Hundred Days in Europe. He was accorded many 
honors by the cities and universities which he visited. He 
received honorary degrees from Oxford, Cambridge, and 
Edinburgh. At Cambridge the students welcomed him 
with some cleverly adapted new words to an old song, the 
title of which was "Holmes, Sweet Holmes"; and with this 
phrase on our ears we may close our study of this delightful 
author.^ 

Henry David Thoreau. One of the effects of the tran- 
scendental movement was to send men back to nature. The 
most distinguished spirit of this movement was Emerson, 
whose first book was entitled Nature. But the man who 
went farthest into the real mysteries of nature was Henry 
David Thoreau (181 7-1862). We look upon him now as 
the pioneer and perhaps still the greatest of the large school 
of nature writers which has sprung up in recent years. His 
friend William Ellery Channing happily called him the 
poet-naturalist. He was, indeed, in spirit a poet as well 
as a naturalist, and he recorded much of his early thought 
in verse form; but in later years he expressed himself en- 
tirely in prose, and he is now chiefly valued as an original 
and striking prose stylist, who conscientiously and lovingly 
portrayed the varied aspects of nature in and around his 
native village of Concord, Massachusetts. 



iThe standard biography of this author is The Life and Letters of Oliver 
Wendell Holmes by J. T. Morse. 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 209 

Thoreau's early life at Concord. Thoreau was the son of 
John Thoreau, a descendant of a French family which had 




HENRY D. THOREAU 



settled on the island of Jersey, and Cynthia Dunbar, a spright- 
ly woman of Scotch descent. He was bom at Concord, July 
12,1817. Both his parents had been reared at Concord, and 
the family seems to have taken deep root in this consecrated 



14 



2IO History of American Literature 

soil. Henry could not bear to think of living in any other 
place. Emerson, Hawthorne, Channing, the Alcotts, and 
other notable literary persons lived here, but none of them 
was so thoroughly attached to the soil, so much a natural 
outgrowth of it as was Thoreau, and none has so faithfully 
and lovingly preserved the external features and the spiritual 
atmosphere of the region about. He seemed to be a part 
of nature itself in this particular spot. For a few years 
during his early childhood his parents went to seek their 
fortune in other places near by, but they came back to 
Concord in time for Henry to get his common-school edu- 
cation there. Then he was sent to Harvard College, and 
by the combined financial help of the members of his family 
he was enabled to graduate in 1837. So little did he value 
the diploma and so much was economy necessary that he 
refused to pay the five-dollar fee necessary to secure the 
formal certificate of his graduation. He engaged in teach- 
ing for a few years, finding a place in his native town to 
test his ability in this capacity, but his refusal to continue 
the practice of administering corporal punishment led to 
his withdrawal from the business of keeping school. He 
then took up his father's business of pencil-making, and 
by working industriously he soon mastered the secrets of 
this peculiar occupation. With that eccentricity for which 
he had already become noticeable, he announced that he 
would make no more pencils, since he did not care to do 
again what he had once learned to do well. He decided 
that the best thing a man could do was to learn to live 
simply and economically, avoiding much of the unnecessary 
frippery and luxury of modern life. He thought that most 
people spent entirely too much time making a living and 
entirely too little in really living. "A man is rich," he 
said, "in proportion to the number of things he can afford 
to let alone." If any friend proposed that Thoreau should 
embark in some enterprise, he was ready to reply that he 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 211 

had already embarked in a permanent business venture, 
that of, the Hving his own hfe in his own way. 

His simple method of life. Of course he had to work part 
of the time to earn the actual means of subsistence, but he 
accepted Carlyle's doctrine that the chief way to satisfy 
one's desires was to "reduce the denominator of life's frac- 
tion." He estimated that he could earn enough in one 
day's labor to subsist for a week, and he proportioned his 
own time in just about this ratio between manual labor and 
quiet observation, meditation, and loitering in the presence 
of wild nature. He was by no means idle during these 
experiences in the fields and forests and on the lakes and 
streams, for he was continually studying nature and record- 
ing his own thoughts and impressions. His manual labor 
was of varied kinds — gardening, carpentry, fence-building, 
but primarily surveying. He once jocularly quoted Cow- 
per's poem on Alexander Selkirk, 

"I am monarch of all I survey," 

and he summarized his occupations by saying that his steadi- 
est employment was to keep himself in the top of condition 
so as to be ready for anything that might turn up on earth 
or in heaven. He began to lecture with more or less regu- 
larity after the lyceums came into vogue, but he was never 
a great favorite in this field. 

Thoreau's personality. Thoreau never mamed. He was 
too much centered in the development of his own inner life, 
too coldly self -mastering, too passionless to become enmeshed 
in the ties of sentiment or domestic life, and it is perhaps 
well that he did not marry. It is certainly unjust to him, 
however, to say that he was cold and indifferent in his 
domestic relations. He was devoted to his brother and 
sisters and to his parents, he was exceedingly fond of chil- 
dren, and he was kind and helpful to the oppressed who 
came under his notice. But he was not personally magnetic, 



212 History of American Literature 

he made few intimate friends, and he did not possess a uni- 
versal sympathy hke that of Wah Whitman, for example. 
He was rather a man who sought out the secrets of his own 
nature and mind and made a strict record of the findings, 
than one who opened his heart to the world around him. 
Some one suggested that he must love man since he loved 
all animals, but it is perhaps true that Thoreau preferred 
the companionship of the furred and feathered animals. 
Emerson very correctly called him a "Bachelor of Nature." 

Thoreau and Emerson. For several years Thoreau was an 
inmate of Emerson's home at Concord. He was a sort of 
adopted elder brother and helped to earn his keep by 
working around the house and in the garden, and by tutor- 
ing Emerson's children in a desultory sort of way. He 
studied nature and oriental literature, talked philosophy 
with Emerson, opening the elder writer's eyes to many 
beauties and revealing secrets of nature hitherto hidden 
from him, and developed himself normally and naturally in 
his own way. The period of his residence with Emerson 
was an important one in Thoreau' s life, for he was beginning 
to find himself and to follow implicitl}^ the promptings of 
his own instincts. 

Thoreau s residence in the woods near Walden Pond. It 
was about this time that he decided to go to the woods and 
live alone in order to let his genius ripen. Emerson owned 
a piece of land on Walden Pond near Concord, and here 
Thoreau "squatted." He tells us in his book Walden, or 
Life in the Woods how he borrowed Ellery Channing's axe, 
cut down the trees for the frame of his house, built his hut 
at a remarkably low expense, and set up housekeeping in 
the woods. He planted beans and potatoes, intending to 
live as far as possible on his own products and the fish he 
could catch in the ponds and streams. Here he became 
familiar with the beasts and birds of the forest and even 
the fishes of the lake. He recorded everv item which his 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 213 

keen eye and clear mind observed. He set down day by day 
and season by season every detail about the plants and 
animals and birds and fishes. He was developing his soul by 
studying wild life and recording his own minutest thoughts 
and emotions. He did not go out to prove that a man could 
live the simple life entirely separated from his fellows ; he did 
not go out to prove that a hermit's life was better than ordi- 
nary social life; he did not even want people to imitate his 
way of living. What he did want to do was to give his soul 
room to expand, to find out what he could best do with his 
endowment of mind and heart and eye, to study wild life 
closely and on equal and friendly terms, and to make a full 
and frank personal record of his observations and inner 
experiences. In all this he succeeded, and his success has 
given the public a new view of nature, a new inspiration 
for simple, sincere living. 

T hore ail s first published volume. Thoreau went to Walden 
Pond in 1845 and returned to his father's home in Concord 
in 1847, but the volume recording his experiences there did 
not appear until 1854. In the meantime he had completed 
and published in 1849 his first volume, an account of a tour 
made in a canoe by Thoreau and his brother John some ten 
years before, and called A Week on the Concord^ and Merri- 
mack Rivers. It has a thin thread of narrative, but it is 
made up for the most part of selections from Thoreau's 
thoughts, poems, and moral observations during the years 
up to its publication. It is a loose, uneven composition, and 
has the peculiar quality of works of genius: it is as dry to 
some readers as it is fascinating to others. Of the thousand 
copies printed, only about three hundred were disposed of 
by gift or sale during several years and the publisher finally 
sent the remainder of the edition to Thoreau's home. He 
packed the books away and jocularly remarked that he had a 
library of nine hundred volumes, seven hundred of which 
he had written himself. 



214 History of American Literature 

"Walden, or Life in the Woods." But he kept working 
along quietly in his own vein, accumulating vast stores of 
notes in his journals, and presently Walden, or Life in the 
Woods, largely made up of material selected from these 
journals, was ready for publication. This volume, from the 
peculiar experiment which it recorded, was somewhat more 
successful, but the public was not yet ready for this sort of 
nature interpretation, mixed with the sententious wisdom 
and moral meditations of the poet-naturalist. 

Thoreau's other works. Thoreau did his best thinking 
during his long daily walks. His notes of his walks are 
delightful records, and some of his best books, published 
since his death, are the results of his walking tours, as for 
example. The Maine Woods and Cape Cod, edited by Emer- 
son, and four other books edited by H. G. O. Blake under the 
title of the four seasons, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and 
Winter. These posthumous volumes consisted of previously 
published papers and extracts from the thirty or more manu- 
script volumes of Thoreau's journals. Finally in 1896 they 
were published in fourteen volumes under the title of 
Thoreau's Journals, so that now we have a perfect quarry 
of Thoreau material to dig into at will. 

His death: the Thoreau cairn. It is a pity that Thoreau 
did not live to prepare his own books for publication, for he 
was a minute reviser and a careful workman on his literary 
style in the proof sheets. Perhaps we may console our- 
selves with the thought that the unpruned records as we 
have them give us after all a true picture of the man as he 
was. About i860 he exposed himself too freely in his long 
winter walks, and contracted consumption. He went to 
Minnesota for a time to see if the dry climate might not help 
him, but he returned not greatly benefited, and became a 
helpless but patient invalid. He died May 6, 1862, and was 
buried in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery of his native town. 
Close by the spot where Thoreau's cabin stood near Walden 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 215 

Pond, a large cairn of loose stones has been gradually raised 
to his memory by the hundreds of pilgrims who come annu- 
ally to this literary shrine.^ 

■ James Russell Lowell. James Russell Lowell (181 9-1 891) 
is usually designated as our "representative man of letters." 
His versatility and originality, his successful productions 
not in one but in many types of literature, and his character- 
istic literary attitude even in his moral and political thought 
and in his diplomatic and other pubHc services, justly entitle 
him to this designation. He possessed a brilliant mind and 
was a scholar by instinct and training, and yet we are 
constantly wondering if he always gave the world the very 
best of which he was capable. He worked rapidly and 
with intense fervor, and depended largely on the "first fine, 
careless rapture" for his best eflForts. If he had been just a 
trifle more patient, painstaking, and self-contained, he might 
have produced even greater masterpieces than he has done. 

Lowell's ancestry. Lowell was born February 22, 18 19, 
at " Elm wood, " another famous old Cambridge house not 
far from Longfellow's home, "Craigie House." The old 
Puritan family of Lowells belonged to what Holmes called 
"the Brahmins of New England." One member of this 
family founded the city of Lowell and was among the first to 
introduce the manufacture of cotton into this country; 
another endowed "Lowell Institute" in Boston; and his own 
father, Reverend Charles Lowell, was a noted pastor of a 
Congregational church in Boston. It was from his mother, 
Harriet Spence, however, that Lowell inherited his poetic 
instincts. She claimed to be descended from the famous old 
Scotch sea captain. Sir Patrick Spence, of ballad fame. 

Early influences. In his youth Lowell was surrounded 
by the best cultural influences, and he read deeply in his 

iThe best life of this author is Thoreau: the Poet-Naturalist by W. E. 
Channing, revised by F. B. Sanborn. A good short biography is that by 
Henry S. Salt in the Great Writers Series. 



2i6 History of American Literature 

father's excellent library. He was an imaginative child, 
often confessing to have seen visions in his youth, and to 
have been constantly accompanied by the medieval char- 
acters with whom he had become acquainted by reading 
Spenser's Faerie Queene and other imaginative poems and 
romances. Moreover, he was deeply religious. Mr. Ferris 
Greenslet, his latest biographer, says that the two significant 
influences of the poet's early life were "his love for the 
outdoor world at Elmwood, and his equally strong love for 
the indoor world of literature." Mr. Greenslet also makes 
much of the mystical element in Lowell's nature. 

Educated at Harvard. It was but natural for Lowell to go 
to Harvard when he was ready to enter college, for his 
father had graduated there before him, and all his native 
and local inclinations led him to that institution. He did 
not make a good record, for he read everything, he says, but 
those books which would have advanced his academic stand- 
ing. He was one of the cleverest wits in his class, however, 
and like Emerson and Holmes, he was chosen class poet. 
Just two weeks before he was graduated, the authorities of 
the college rusticated him as a punishment for his continued 
neglect of his academic duties. He spent two rather dreary 
weeks at Concord, and in spite of the facts that he met 
Emerson and Thoreau here and had time to compose and 
polish up his class poem, he confessed to a Hfelong feeling of 
dislike for the famous old village. He was allowed to return 
to Harvard in time for graduation, but not in time to read 
his class poem. 

From law to literature. Like several others of our literary 
men, Lowell first turned to the law for a livelihood. He 
. took the Bachelor of Laws degree at Harvard and went 
so far as to enter a law office to practice. About this time 
(1840) he met and became engaged to Maria White, a beauti- 
ful and accomplished young woman, and her influence on 
him finally determined his Hfe career. She was a great 




JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL 



2i8 History of American Literature 

lover of poetry and a strong adherent of the cause of aboli- 
tion. Lowell began now to write stirring articles for the 
abolition journals and attractive poems for The Southern 
Literary Messenger and other literary magazines. His first 
volume, A Year's Life, came out in 1841, the most notable 
poems being those addressed to his prospective wife. 

Growth of his fame: ''The Present Crisis.'' Encouraged 
by the reception of his literary efforts, Lowell decided to 
abandon the law and devote himself to literature. He 
attempted to form a literary journal, The Pioneer, but this 
venture failed after a brief career. At the end of 1843 ^ 
collected edition of his poems appeared and was received 
with great favor by the public. In 1844, with the success 
of this volume and the additional income from his contribu- 
tions to the magazines and from his popular lectures, Lowell 
was enabled to marry. He had secured a position, too, as 
editorial writer for The Pennsylvania Freeman, a journal at 
one time edited by Whittier. His fame grew, and he gradu- 
ally became one of the leading literary men of his time. He 
was continually flashing forth with some fiery lyric on topics 
of the day, or quietly publishing some exquisite personal or 
nature poem. For example, in 1844, during the heated 
discussion of the slavery question in connection with the 
admission of Texas to the Union, he produced " The Present 
Crisis," a stirring ode written in the long trochaic meter of 
Tennyson's "Locksley Hall." It caught the public ear 
and was quoted many times in public addresses during the 
period of discussion preceding the Civil War. In spite of its 
occasional character, it contains some fine thoughts and 
notable passages, such as, 

Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, 
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side; 

Truth forever on the scaffold. Wrong forever on the throne, — 
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown, 
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own; 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 219 

New occasions teach new duties ; Time makes ancient Good uncouth ; 
They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of Truth. 

This betrays the moraHst and the Puritan in Lowell's nature, 
but in spite of its preaching tone and the local or circum- 
scribed theme, the noble sincerity and fiery passion of the 
poem lift it clearly into the realm of art. 

Lowell's annus mirabilis: the " Biglow Papers.'' The 
year 1848 has been called Lowell's annus mirabilis, or year 
of wonders. Besides many essays and fugitive poems, he 
published during this year a new volume of poems, chiefly 
lyrical, the famous Biglow Papers, First Series; the clever 
satire, "A Fable for Critics"; and chief of all, "The Vision 
of Sir Launfal." The Biglow Papers were cast in the homely 
New England dialect, and for shrewdness, Yankee common- 
sense, sparkling wit, and keen political satire, we have 
nothing in our literature to compare with the combined 
First Series (1848), dealing with the Mexican War, and the 
Second Series (1866), dealing with the Civil War. These 
pieces, begun in a spirit of humor as a light newspaper 
contribution to the political discussion of the time, brought 
Lowell national and even international fame, and placed 
him securely in the first rank of American humorists. They 
are composed partly in prose and partly in verse, -and pur- 
port to be mainly poetical productions of Hosea Biglow 
of Jaalam, with introductory letters mainly by Parson 
Homer Wilbur. The poems were copied and quoted widely, 
and some of them, notably "What Mr. Robinson Thinks," 
became almost as popular as a byword during the period 
immediately following their appearance. Of course dialect 
poems of this character, being chiefly satirical and largely 
made up of local allusions and topical material, cannot be 
expected to retain popular favor for many decades; but so 
sprightly is the humor, so original and fresh is the concep- 
tion of both character and incident, and so permanent is the 
basic moral truth of the Biglow Papers that it will always 



2 20 History of American Literature 

retain its interest for students of our native language and 
literature. And at least one poem, "The Courtin'," pro- 
duced not as an integral part of the Biglow Papers but 
under the same impulse, is destined, because of its more 
human and universal appeal, to retain its place much longer 
in popular esteem as a standard humorous ballad. 

"A Fable for Critics^ Lowell's critical abilities are well 
displayed in "A Fable for Critics," a humorous jeu d' esprit 
written, as Lowell says, "at full gallop," from time to time 
in 1847 and 1849. In spite of the playful badinage and 
the bantering tone of the satire, the criticism of the various 
authors was meant to be serious. The piece is composed 
in a curious four-stressed anapestic rhythm with many 
ludicrous rimes to fit this unusual meter. So well did 
Lowell strike ofif the characteristics of Emerson, Bryant, 
Whittier, Hawthorne, Cooper, Poe, Longfellow, Irving, 
Holmes, and even Lowell himself, that lines from the poem 
are still frequently and approvingly quoted by modem 
critics. For example. 

There is Bryant, as quiet, as cool, as dignified. 

As a smooth, silent iceberg, that never was ignified. 

There comes Poe, with his raven, like Barnaby Rudge, 
Three fifths of him genius and two fifths sheer fudge. 

There is Lowell, who's striving Parnassus to climb 
With a whole bale of isms tied together with rhyme. 

As a whole, "A Fable for Critics" is fantastically conceived 
and loosely thrown together, and it is by no means a work 
of art. Still it is not too much to say that it is the finest 
example of satiric criticism in our literature. It may be 
favorably compared with Byron's "English Bards and 
Scotch Reviewers," though it certainly is not written in 
the revengeful and caustic mood of its English predecessor. 
" The Vision of Sir Launfal." But by far the most won- 
derful product of this wonderful year of Lowell's is the 



. Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 221 

far-famed "Vision of Sir Launfal." This narrative poem in 
ode form is usually conceded to be the masterpiece of Lowell's 
poetic genius. It belongs to that large number of poems 
dealing with the Arthurian legend of the search for the Holy 
Grail, the marvelously preserved cup from which Jesus drank 
and served his disciples at the last supper before He was 
betrayed. Lowell said that the story was his own inven- 
tion, and the principal idea underlying the poem, — namely, 
that only through unselfish service to the needy can one hope 
to find the Holy Grail, that is, realize the ideal of Christ, — 
is certainly his own, for he had previously used the theme 
in several other pieces. Every one should study the 
poem closely for himself, for in no other way can one realize 
the mystical and romantic beauty of the conception. The 
young reader should remember that it is a vision and not a 
real adventure upon which Sir Launfal goes. The two 
preludes are long, and the parts are not well coordinated, 
so that one is likely to miss the point of the poem as a 
whole. There are some fiat lines and some strained and 
unnatural images, too, and the work as a whole might 
have been greatly improved by a careful revision. But 
these faults may be pardoned in the face of the many ex- 
cellences that the poem possesses. The descriptive passages 
on spring and winter in the contrasted preluded are well 
worth memorizing, as is also the moral attached to the 
story : 

The Holy Supper is kept, indeed, 
In wljatso we share with another's need; — 
Not that which we give, but what we share, — 
For the gift without the giver is bare. 

LowelVs odes. Among the later poems by Lowell the 
"Commemoration Ode," read in 1865 at the Harvard ser- 
vices in commemoration of her sons who fell in the Civil 
War, is the most notable. The tribute to Lincoln, beginning 
"And such was he, our Martyr Chief," and the magnificent 



222 History of American Literature 

patriotic conclusion, beginning "0 Beautiful! my Country," 
have been singled out by discerning critics as the high-water 
mark not only of Lowell's poetry, but of America's. "Under 
the Willows" (1868), "The Cathedral" (1869), "Agassiz" 
(1876), and "Under the Old Elm" (1875) are also worthy of 
special mention among Lowell's longer and more serious 
poems. The last named poem celebrates the Old Elm under 
which Washington took command of the Revolutionary 
Army, and contains a notable tribute to the great soldier 
and statesman. 

Lowell as teacher and talker. In 1856 Lowell, who had 
already for some years been lecturing on literature at 
Lowell Institute in Boston, succeeded Longfellow in the 
Smith Professorship of Spanish and Italian at Harvard. 
He held this position for seventeen years and earned the 
distinction of being a most charming and inspiring lecturer. 
Moreover, Lowell was greatly in demand as a public orator 
both in England and in America, and he never disappointed 
his audiences. He had a sort of conversational style of 
teaching, which his pupils said was delightful. In fact, 
Lowell was a remarkable conversationalist and letter- 
writer all his life; it is said that he was the finest talker 
not only in America but in England during his time, and his 
two volumes of Letters edited by his friend Charles Eliot 
Norton are charming in every respect. It was in this year 
that Lowell — his first wife having been dead several years — 
married Miss Frances Dunlap, a beautiful young woman of 
excellent family who was at this time the governess of his 
daughter. It was in this year, too, that The Atlantic 
Monthly ^nsls founded with Lowell as its first editor. With 
the assistance of the principal literary men of New England, 
Lowell made of this journal what it has since continued to 
be, — our chief literary magazine. Later (1863) be became 
editorially connected with The North American Review. 

Lowell's essays and addresses. During these years Lowell's 



Artistic or Creativs Period: New England Group 223 




ELMWOOD, LOWELL'S HOME AT CAMBRIDi 



fame as an essayist and critic was continually growing. His 
collected volumes of prose include Fireside Travels (1864), 
Among My Books, First and Second Series (1870, 1876), 
My Study Windows (187 1), Democracy and Other Addresses 



2 24 History of American Literature 

(1886), and Latest Literary Essays and Addresses (1892). 
These works unquestionably place Lowell first among our 
critical essayists. With his keen insight, fine literary judg- 
ment and taste, exuberant hiunor, and scintillating wit, he 
makes subjects ordinarily dry and uninteresting exceedingly 
entertaining and enlightening. He has something fresh 
and new to say even when he treats familiar subjects like 
Shakespeare, Spenser, Chaucer, Dry den. The best of his 
outdoor essays are "My Garden Acquaintance" and "A 
Good Word for Winter"; and his address on "Democracy," 
delivered at Birmingham, England, in 1884, is a notable 
analysis of our national ideals. All Lowell's essays, however, 
are full of subtleties, minute literary allusions, and fanciful 
and humorous touches, and hence are rather difficult reading 
for young students. 

His last years. In 1877 Lowell was appointed foreign 
minister at Madrid, and in 1880 he was promoted to be 
ambassador to England, the most distinguished post in our 
foreign diplomatic service. It is said that he was up to this 
time the most popular ambassador America had sent to the 
Court of Saint James. He was called on for all sorts of 
addresses, and many honors were heaped upon him. He 
returned to America in 1885, and though his life was now 
saddened by the loss of his second wife, he continued to 
write until his death in 1891. He was buried near Long- 
fellow in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, almost 
within sight of the old family home in which he was bom.^ 

THE NEW ENGLAND HISTORIANS AND ESSAYISTS 

The chief historians. The nineteenth century New Eng- 
land historians who have achieved literary as well as scholarly 



1 The standard life of Lowell is that by Horace E. Scudder in two 
volumes; Ferris Greenslet's life is a delightful shorter study; and The 
Letters of James Russell Lowell, edited by Charles E. Norton in two vol- 
umes, gives a still more intimate knowledge of the poet's literary and 
personal connections. 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 225 

success in their several fields are George Ticknor, William H. 
Prescott, John Lothrop Motley, George Bancroft, Francis 
Parkman, and John Fiske. 

George Ticknor. George Ticknor (1791-1871), born at 
Boston and educated at Dartmouth, was one of the first 
of the American scholars to seek training abroad. He 
studied in Europe for four years, principally at Gottingen, 
Germany. He returned to America in 181 5 to become 
Smith professor of modern languages at Harv^ard, a position 
which he held until 1834, when he was succeeded by Henry 
W. Longfellow. Ticknor deserves to be remembered not 
only as a productive historian and critical writer, but also as 
one of our first scholars to adopt advanced European methods 
of research. He did not begin to publish until several 
years after his retirement from active teaching, but the 
long period of preparation and the patient method of his 
composition are justified in the permanent character of 
his works. His History of Spanish Literature (1849) is one 
of the first great landmarks in American scholarly achieve- 
ment. Besides this standard literary history, his Life of 
William Hickling Prescott (1864) and his own Life, Letters, 
and Journals (1876) are two additional productions of 
prime interest to the student of this period of American 
literature and history. 

William H. Prescott. William Hickling Prescott (1796- 
1859) is one of the most fascinating of the New England 
historians. He had the misfortune to lose one of his eyes 
through an accident, and the sight of his other eye was 
almost entirely lost through sympathetic infection; but his 
determination to make a historian of himself was not to be 
broken by this handicap. He employed readers and con- 
tinued to collect notes in his own particular field of research. 
His first work was in Spanish history, The Reign of Ferdinand 
and Isabella (1837). He followed up this successful venture 
by his delightful History of The Conquest of Mexico (1844) 
15 



2 26 History of American Literature 

and The Conquest of Peru (1847), two books that read like 
romance, and finally by an incomplete Hi^^ory of the Reign 
of Philip the Second (1855). The truth is that there is a 
good deal of highly romantic material m these histories, 
particularly in The Conquest of Mexico and The Conquest of 
Peru, for Prescott depended implicitly on the exaggerated 
and laudatory accounts of the Spanish conquerors of these 
countries; and besides, he was himself an adherent of the 
romantic rather than the strictly scientific school of histo- 
rians. Hence, while his books are still delightful reading, 
Prescott's histor\^ is subject to correction by modern research. 
His imagination, his wonderfully vivid descriptions, and his 
attractive literar}^ style are not to be discounted, however, 
and these characteristics together with the inherently inter- 
esting nature of his material have kept his books alive. 

John Lothrop Motley. A more dependable recorder of 
facts and a profounder interpreter of the underlying phi- 
losophy of history was John Lothrop Motley (181 4- 1877). 
After studying in Gottingen, Germany, he returned to 
America to devote himself to writing history. His early 
efforts met with little encouragement, but he persisted until 
he won a well-deserved fame. He devoted ten full years 
of his life, partly in America and partly in Holland, to the 
study of Dutch history before he published his great work 
called The Rise of the Dutch Republic (1856). He continued 
his researches in this field, and in i860 he duplicated the 
success of his first work by publishing the first two volrmies 
of his History of the United Netherlands. It was eight years 
before the last two volumes were ready to be added to this 
monumental work. A few years later he completed his 
last contribution to Dutch history. The Life and Death of 
John of Barneveld (1874). In Europe as well as in America 
Motley's histories are still recognized to be of the first class 
both for careful research and judicious analysis of causes 
and effects in history, and for the brilliance and power of 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 227 

his style. While the subject-matter of his histories is for- 
eign to our own country, Motley's enthusiasm for democratic 
ideals and his zeal for human liberty and the heroic sacrifices 
men have made for it make his work thoroughly American 
in spirit. 

George Bancroft and John Fiske. George Bancroft (1800- 
1891) and John Fiske (i 842-1 901) devoted themselves 
almost entirely to American history. Bancroft gave the 
best efforts of his life to his History of the United States 
(183 4- 1882), published in six volumes. This work is 
notable both for its scholarly accuracy and for its simple 
and effective style. Fiske, though a younger writer than 
the other members of the school, holds a secure place as a 
scholarly historian and as an expository philosopher. His 
chief merit lies in his ability to present in clear and con- 
vincing style the complex problems of history and philosophy 
without unduly antagonizing the preconceived notions of 
his readers. His best works are The Beginnings of New 
England, The American Revolution, The Idea of God, and 
Essays Historical and Literary. 

Francis Parkman. For younger readers the historical 
works of Francis Parkman (1823-1893) take precedence in 
interest over all others in this class of writing. His long 
series of volimies covering the struggle between the English 
and French colonists in North America and his entrancing 
first volume, detailing an adventurous trip made into the 
Western wilderness in 1846, make up the most fascinating 
and trustworthy historical narratives that have so far 
appeared in America. The California and Oregon Trails 
(1847-49), Parkman's first volume, is a good one for the 
young reader to begin with. It is as thrilling as an imag- 
inative story of adventure, and yet it is all true to fact, 
being based on historical records and the actual personal 
experiences of the adventurous young historian. After 
the exposure incident to the collection of the material for 



2 28 History of American Literature 

his first volume, Parkman's health failed, and he suffered 
an affliction of the eyes which left him, like Prescott, almost 
blind. With a courage and fortitude born of genius, he 
overcame all obstacles and continued to gather material 
for his series of volumes dealing with the history of the 
colonial period and Indian life. He had already prepared 
the manuscript for the first of these volumes The Con- 
spiracy of Pontiac (1851), when another affliction left him 
lame for life. After an interval of fourteen years there 
began to appear in due succession seven other volumes 
dealing with the same general theme, "France and England 
in North America." Perhaps after the two books already 
mentioned, Montcalm and Wolfe (1884) and A Half Century 
of Conflict (1892) are the most entertaining of Parkman's 
output. 

Summary. Looking back in a brief survey of this dis- 
tinguished group of New England historians, we may con- 
elude that Motley and Parkman are the greatest from 
the point of view of literary grace and power; that Prescott 
is the most romantic, and for that reason perhaps the most 
entertaining for the average reader; and that Bancroft 
and Fiske are the most scientific. For the young reader 
Parkman is far and away the most desirable one to begin 
■ with in the effort to cultivate a taste for historical reading'. 

Two New England essa3rists. Among the large number of 
skilful recent writers of prose in New England two names 
seem to have emerged above the mass because of the 
peculiarly original and individual note in their productions, 
- — namely Dr. Samuel McChord Crothers (1857-) and 
Gerald Stanley Lee (1862-). Dr. Crothers was born in 
Illinois, but he was educated in the East and became thor- 
oughly inoculated with the New England spirit. After 
graduation at the Harvard Divinity School, he spent about 
five years as a Presbyterian minister in the far West, and 
then became a Unitarian preacher and returned to New 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 229 

England to occupy several pulpits, the last and most impor- 
tant one being at Cambridge, Massachusetts. Rather 
late in life he began contributing essays to The Atlantic 
Monthly, and from time to time he has collected these into 
books, such as The Gentle Reader (1903), The Pardoner's 
Wallet (1905), By the Christmas Fire (1908), Humanly 
Speaking (19 12). With his refinement of feeling, his charm 
of style, his gentle culture, and quiet yet pervasive humor, 
Dr. Crothers has endeared himself to a host of readers. 
One critic asserts that no essays since the days of the ' ' Auto- 
crat" have pleased the American public more than have 
these essays by Dr. Crothers. Entirely different in style 
and general subject-matter is the work of Gerald Stanley 
Lee, another New England minister. He was born in 
Massachusetts and educated at Yale Divinity School, 
becoming a Congregational minister in 1888. Since 1898 
he has been a lecturer and general writer on the arts in 
modem times. He is possessed of a vigorous, trenchant 
style, and at times he is emphatically modern in his diction. 
He has original ideas, however, and he rarely fails to attract 
and hold the attention of his readers. He is a milder, saner 
sort of twentieth-century Carlyle, interpreting human 
nature in new terms for the new age. His best books are 
The Child and the Book, A Constructive Criticism of Education 
(1902); The Lost Art of Reading (1902); The Voice of the 
Machines, An Introduction to the Twentieth Century (1906); 
Crowds, A Moving Picture of Democracy (19 13); and We, A 
Confession of Faith for Americans During and After the 
War (1916). 

THE MINOR POETS OF NEW ENGLAND 

Preliminary statement. The New England poets outside 
of the major group, including Emerson, Longfellow, 
Whittier, Holmes, and Lowell, need merely passing con- 
sideration. One of them, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, however, 



230 History of American Literature 

approaches very nearly to the rank of the major group and 
deserves special mention here; and Josiah Gilbert Holland 
may also be said to have reached a wider popular audience 
than most of the other minor poets. After treating these 
briefly and recording the names of a few of the other minor 
New England poets, we must make some brief mention of 
the so-called "New Poetry," which has taken its rise chiefly 
in New England and in the Middle West during the first 
two decades of the twentieth century. 

Thomas Bailey Aldrich. Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836- 
1907) belongs with Edmund Clarence Stedman and Bayard 
Taylor in the group of literary men who deserve high com- 
mendation for their accomplishment in several spheres of 
literary activity, but who perhaps fall just a little short of 
that final attainment which would place them in the first 
rank. Aldrich was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 
and though he lived for short periods in New Orleans and 
New York, he spent the happiest days of his boyhood in 
the New England town, as The Story oj a Bad Boy, an 
autobiographical reminiscence, amply proves. He engaged 
in business in New York, but, in 1855, upon the publication 
of "The Ballad of Baby Bell" and other poems which 
gained some popular success, he entered upon a literary 
career. He was connected with several New York papers, - 
and published a number of volumes of prose and verse; but 
he seems to have failed to attract any large following. 
Just after the Civil War he removed to Boston to engage 
in editorial work, and here he made his home until his 
death in 1907. Between 1881 and 1890 he was editor of 
The Atlantic Monthly, a position which is usually recognized 
as the very highest attainable among literary journalists. 
Here he was associated with practically all of the chief 
New England writers, and he aspired in his own creative 
work to be ranked with the greatest. His early poetry was 
touched with a sort of extreme sentimentalism, "Baby 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 231 

Bell," the tearful ballad which first brought him popular 
applause, being typical. A strong inclination for the 
purely sensuous and beautiful, no doubt, led him into some 
early extravagances, but these he afterwards carefully 
pruned away, so that his later work shows a marked re- 
straint and refinement. He confesses that at one time he 
was entranced by mere external beauty of form and rhythm, 
but that in his maturer attitude toward his art he cared 
more for the grace and beauty that dwell with unadorned 
truth. There seems to be little question, however, but 
that Aldrich's work as a whole is overdone in its refinement, 
finish, and classic polish. Out of the many volumes of 
poetry and prose which he published, there must be selected 
a comparatively small volume of his songs and sonnets as 
his permanent contribution to our poetry. His two notable 
successes in prose. The Story of a Bad Boy and Marjorie 
Daw, both delightful narratives, will doubtless continue to 
hold a high place among the best American stories. 

J. G. Holland. Dr. Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819-1881) 
belongs to the older school of New England poets, though 
he was bom as late as 18 19, the year in which Lowell was 
bom. He wrote books of many kinds and was a successful 
lycetim lecturer. His long narrative poems, Bitter-Sweet 
(1858) and Katrina (1867), reached a circulation of more 
than a hundred thousand copies each, and it may be said 
that they deserve the broad popular approval which they 
attained. Some passages from his longer poems, such, for 
example, as the cradle song from Bitter-Sweet, beginning, 

What is the little one thinking about? 
Very wonderful things, no doubt ! 

Unwritten history! 

Unfathomed mystery! 
Yet he laughs and cries, and eats and drinks, 
And chuckles and crows, and nods and winks, 
As if his head were as full of kinks 
And curious riddles as any sphinx! 



232 History of American Literature 

have become popular through frequent quotation and 
declamation; and many of his shorter poems have secured 
a similar place of fixed popularity in the general mind of 
our citizenship, such, for example, as the . following well- 
known poem: 

WANTED 
God give us men! A time like this demands 
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands; 
Men whom the lust of office does not kill; 

Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; 
Men who possess opinions and a will; 

Men who have honor, — men who will not lie; 
Men who can stand before a demagogue. 

And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking! 
Tall men, sun-crowned, who five above the fog 

In public duty, and in private thinking: 
For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds, 
Their large professions and their little deeds, — 
Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps. 
Wrong rules the land, and waiting Justice sleeps! 

After he was fifty Dr. Holland became editor of Scribner's 
Monthly and lived in New York, but his most significant 
work was produced in New England. 

Women poets. New England has been particularly pro- 
ductive of women poets of merit. Foremost among these 
should be named Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910), who was 
engaged in the abolition and other reform movements and 
wrote several plays, much general prose, and many poems. 
Her "Battle Hymn of the Republic," written early in the 
Civil War under the stress of intense emotion, patriotic 
fervor, and religious ecstasy, is the only production of Mrs. 
Howe's which has survived in popular favor. Other women 
poets are Lucy Larcom (182 6- 1893), a cotton-mill worker of 
Lowell, Massachusetts, who wrote many pleasing but light 
and sometimes over-sentimental poems for children; Emily 
Dickinson (1830-1886), a recluse of Amherst, Massachusetts, 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 233 

author of a number of very short and tense but strikingly- 
original lyrics; and Celia Thaxter (1836-1894), the daughter 
of a lighthouse keeper and author of highly colored but 
vivid prose in her volume called Among the Isles of Shoals, 
and of several wellnigh flawless sea poems, such as "The 
Sandpiper." Celia Thaxter' s lyrics are especially suitable 
for young readers, and they have been frequently included 
in juvenile reading books. Anna Hemstead Branch, of 
Connecticut, is one of the most promising of the younger 
women poets who have not allied themselves with the 
irnagists or writers of free-verse. She published a prize 
poem, "The Road 'Twixt Heaven and Hell," in The 
Century Magazine in 1898, and she has since issued three 
volumes of excellent poetry — The Heart of the Road (1901), 
The Shoes that Danced (1905), and The Rose of the Wind 
(1910). 

Some minor poets. Among the minor poets of the New 
England states, mention should be made of Samuel Francis 
Smith (1808-1895), of Boston, a Baptist minister who wrote 
several familiar hymns but whose greatest success was his 
song which has become the best known of our patriotic 
hymns — namely, "America";^ Jones Very (1813-1880), 
a native of Salem, graduate of Harvard, member of the 
transcendental group, and author of a large number of 
graceful short poems and sonnets; John Godfrey Saxe 
(181 6- 1887), of Vermont, a clever writer of humorous verse; 
Thomas William Parsons (18 19-1892), of Massachusetts, 
author of an excellent translation of Dante's Inferno and a 
number of other poetical works of a distinctly high quality; 



1 S. F. Smith was a member of the famous Harvard class of 1829, and 
is referred to as follows by Oliver Wendell Holmes in the poem, "The 
Boys," read at the reunion of the class on its thirtieth anniversary: 

And here's a nice youngster of excellent pith, — ■ 
Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith: 

But he shouted a song for the brave and the free, — 
Just read on his medal, "My Country of thee!" 



234 History of American Literature 

and George Edward Woodberry (185 5-), of Massachusetts, 
for a number of years connected with Columbia University 
in New York as professor of comparative Hterature, equally 
praised as a critic and general essayist and as a poet, particu- 
larly as a poet of broad patriotism and philosophic insight 
into modern life. 

THE NEW POETRY IN NEW ENGLAND 

Edwin Arlington Robinson. Among the score or more 
of the recent New England poets, Edwin Arlington Robinson 
(1869-), Robert Frost, and Amy Lowell may be singled out 
for special consideration. Mr. Robinson was bom in 
Maine and educated at Harvard, though on account of the 
decline of his father's health he left college before he gradu- 
ated. His first volume of poetry was called 7 he Children 
of the Night (1897), a rather gloomy book, though full of 
promise. It contains some short character sketches in a 
somewhat cynical mood, suggestive of the similar later 
work of Edgar Lee Masters. Then he went to New York 
to try to make his way by writing. In 1902 he pub- 
lished a volume called Captain Craig, containing several 
long poems in blank verse and a sheaf of lyrics and sonnets 
and adaptations from the Greek. His third volume, The 
Town Down the River, made up chiefly of character studies, 
appeared in 1910, and his fourth. The Man Against the 
Sky, in 19 1 6. It will be seen that Mr. Robinson has pub- 
lished rather slowly, but he has shown a steady growth in 
his art, and in this last volume he has reached a decidedly 
high level of poetic power. Particularly in the poem "Ben 
Jonson Entertains a Man from Stratford" has he succeeded 
in presenting a lively and vigorous portrait of two notable 
characters in English literature — namely, Ben Jonson and 
William Shakespeare. The title poem, too, "The Man 
Against the Sky," and the character sketch "Flammonde" 
are excellent poems. Says Miss Lowell: "Mr. Robinson 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 235 

deals with something which may fitly be called raw human 
nature, but human nature simple, direct, and as it is. Those 
last three words contain the gist ol the whole matter. In 
them lies Mr. Robinson's gift to the 'new poetry'; simple, 
direct, and as it is."^ 

Robert Frost. Robert Frost (187 5-), though born in 
California, was educated in New England and finally mar- 
ried and engaged in farming and teaching here and there 
in New Hampshire. He lived in England from 19 12 to 
19 1 5, and here his first volume, A Boy's Will (19 13), was 
published and warmly praised by the English reviewers. 
Upon his return to America he intended to retire to his 
farm, but he was called from his retreat to become professor 
of literature at Amherst College in Massachusetts. He has 
studied very closely the strange psychology and habits 
of the surviving types of the earlier New England rural 
population. In the poems in North of Boston (19 14) and 
Mountain Intervals (19 16), the author sedulously avoids all 
of the ordinary poetic diction and ornamentation, and his 
style is notably frank and sincere in the presentation of the 
simple New Hampshire rural life. But over all the familiar 
and commonplace incidents which he chooses to write about, 
Mr. Frost manages to cast the soft light of genuine poetry. 
He merely portrays the ordinary daily tasks, such as the 
mending of a broken wall, harvesting the apples, or picking 
the blueberries, presenting them from the farmer's simple, 
human point of view; and under the realism of his homely 
style these everyday incidents take on a genuine poetic 
coloring and prove to be subjects well worthy of poetic 
treatment. 

Amy Lowell. Miss Lowell (1874-) is a member of the 
famous Abbott Lowell family. One of her brothers, A. L. 
Lowell, is president of Harvard University. Another was 



^Tendencies of Modern American Poetry, p. 52. 



236 History of American Literature 

the noted astronomer, Percival Lowell. Miss Lowell herself 
is the best known of the modem school of imagists and 



^^^^^^H|^^^^f^| 




1 


1 


1 


^^^B^^^«> 




1 



AMY LOWELL 



free-verse poets. In A Dome of Many-Colored Glass (19 12), 
Sword Blades and Poppy Seed (19 14), and Men, Women and 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 237 

Ghosts (19 1 7), Miss Lowell has made her most distinctive 
contribution to the new school of imagists, known popu- 
larly as writers of free-verse. Many of the new poets 
have discarded the regular stereotyped forms of rhythm 
and rime, and adopted a sort of irregular phrasal rhythm, 
by which they claim to gain more freedom in unifying the 
image and more latitude in the choice of the exact word 
which will convey the poetic thought, mood, or symbol as 
conceived by the imagination. The influence of the imagists 
of the Orient, particularly the poets of Japan and China, 
is also acknowledged; and it is evident that Walt Whitman's 
free-rhythm verse, has had considerable weight with the 
new poets in suggesting the invention of novel verse forms 
for their poems. In preparing their first anthology, Some 
Imagist Poets (1915),^ they laid down the following principles 
for the guidance of the group : 

1. To use the language of common speech, but to employ always 
the exact word, not the nearh^-exact, nor the merely decorative word. 

2. To create new rhythms — as the expression of new moods — and 
not to copy old rhythms, which merely echo old moods. We do not 
insist upon "free-verse" as the only method of writing poetry. We 
fight for it as for a principle of liberty. We believe that the individ- 
uality of a poet may often be better expressed in free-verse than in 
conventional forms. In poetry a new cadence means d new idea. 

3. To allow absolute freedom in the choice of subject. 

4. To present an image (hence the name: "Imagist"). 

5. To produce poetry that is hard and clear, never blurred nor 
indefinite. 

6. Finally, most of us believe that concentration is of the very 
essence of poetry. 

It will be observed that there is nothing very new in these 
principles. The essentials of the new poetry may be said 
to have been announced by Poe in his essay on ' ' The Poetic 



iThe English members of the imagist group represented in Some Imagist 
Poets, published successively in 1914, 1915. and 19 16, are Richard Aldington, 
F. S. Flint, and D. H. Lawrence; and the American representatives are Amy 
Lowell. "H. D.," and John Gould Fletcher. 



238 History of American Literature 

Principle." He argued for originality of expression, for the 
creation of new rhythms to express new moods, and for 
concentration or brevity of poetic expression; and all poets 
strive for the exact word, for vivid images, and for clear and 
distinct, if not "hard," effects in their verse. Whatever the 
worth or the final effects of this new type of verse may be, 
we must admit that the imagists have at least helped to 
bring about a marked revival of interest in poetry during 
the past decade, and we may confidently hope that out of 
this revival of interest there wdll eventually emerge some 
products of permanent value. The following poem by 
Miss Lowell will illustrate the imagist's art in its simpler 
forms: 

THE GIFT 

See! I give myself to you, Beloved! 

My words are little jars 

For you to take up and put on a shelf. 

Their shapes are quaint and beautiful, 

And they have many pleasant colors and lustres 

To recommend them. 

Also the scent from them fills the room 

With sweetness of flowers and crushed grasses. 

When I shall have given you the last one 
You will have the whole of me, 
But I shall be dead. 

Miss Lowell has also written a good deal of criticism on the 
new poetry, as in her recent volume. Tendencies in Modern 
American Poetry (191 7), and she is generally acknowledged 
to be the leader of the school of imagists both in England 
and in America. Two other American poets are distinctly 
identified with this school — namely, "H. D." (1886-), 
Miss Hilda Doolittle, of Philadelphia, now the wife of the 
English imagist poet, Richard Aldington, herself an ex- 
tremely sensitive artist in impressionistic free-verse; and 
John Gould Fletcher^ (1886-), of Little Rock, Arkansas. 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 239 

THE NEW ENGLAND WRITERS OF FICTION 

The importance of New England fiction. In recent years 
the writers of fiction have seemed to take precedence in all 
parts of our country over the poets and general prose writers, 
both in number and in popularity. Certainly in New Eng- 
land during the last half of the nineteenth century the 
novelists and short-story writers easily assume the place of 
greatest importance. We may begin with Hawthorne and 
trace the succession of writers of fiction on down through 
Louisa May Alcott, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Thomas Bailey 
Aldrich, Edward Everett Hale, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., 
Donald G. Mitchell, William Dean Howells, Henry James, 
Sarah Orne Jewett, Alice Brown, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, 
and dozens of minor writers of fiction. Of these we have 
treated Hawthorne somewhat at length elsewhere. 

Louisa M. Alcott. Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), the 
daughter of the noted transcendentalist, Bronson Alcott, 
wrote a number of books which have for many years held 
their place at the very top of our juvenile classics. Little 
Women appeared in 1868, and it was an immense success 
from the very first. It was followed by other volumes in 
the same vein, among them Little Men, An Old-Fashioned 
Girl, Eight Cousins, axiilRose in Bloom. Many ,an American 
boy and girl has learned to read good books by the frequent 
thumbing of these well-known juveniles. The moral tone 
is high, the home atmosphere attractive, and the style 
vigorous and sympathetic. In fact, these books leave little 
to be desired as stories for young folks. 

Harriet Beecher Stowe ; "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Though 
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) is the author of a dozen 
or more volumes, she is best known by a single book, Uncle 
Tom's Cabin (1852). By lighting upon the exact psycho- 
logical moment in the happy coincidence of a popular national 
theme with the temper and thought of the time, Mrs. Stowe 
made of this book one of the most powerful influences in 



240 History of American Literature 

the history of our country. Without a doubt, Uncle Tom's 
Cabin was one of the big forces which helped to bring about 
the Civil War; and since it voiced the sentiment of so large 
a number of our people and was on the successful side in the 
issue of the abolition of negro slavery in America, it has 
inevitably taken its place as a classic in our literature. It 
has no great merit ptu-ely as a work of art: it over-idealizes 
the negro in making him nobler in character than the white 
people themselves, it is crude and faulty in plot structure, 
it is sensational in many of its incidents, it is an avowed 
purpose novel; and yet in its evident sincerity of purpose, 
in its fervid emotional appeal, and in its intense zeal for the 
reform of the evils which it portrays, the book rises into the 
realm of power if not of pure art. 

Richard Henry Dana, Jr. Richard Henry Dana, Jr. 
(181 5-1882), wrote the well-known sea tale, Two Years 
before the Mast (1840). It is the realistic story of his own 
experiences in a long cruise on a sailing vessel from Boston 
around Cape Horn to California and back. For graphic 
description, stirring incident, and romantic interest, the 
book is a prime favorite with young readers. 

Donald G. Mitchell. Donald Grant Mitchell (1822-1908), 
a native of Connecticut and a graduate of Yale, won wide 
popularity through his sentimentalized essays strung on a 
thin thread of romance in i?CTm^5 of a Bachelor (1850) and 
Dream Life (1857) published under the pen-name of "Ik 
Marvel." The light and genial humor, dreamy idealism, 
and persistent optimism, and the delicate and tender senti- 
ment which is infused into these volumes keep them alive 
among a certain class of readers. Mitchell's later and more 
pretentious nature prose in Wet Days at Edgewood and My 
Farm at Edgewood and his warmly appreciative literary 
criticism in English Lands, Letters, and Kings and American 
Lands and Letters, though pleasantly written and more 
highly esteemed by their author than his earlier more 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 241 

romantic work, have not reached the wide circle of readers 
which Reveries of a Bachelor and Dream Life commanded 
and still command. 

Other novelists and short-story writers. Among the 
better class of short stories Edward Everett Hale's single 
masterpiece, "The Man without a Country" should be 
remembered. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward (1844-1911), 
of Massachusetts, made almost a sensation with her Gates 
Ajar (1868), a book which is more of a rhapsody or mystical 
revelation of religious enthusiasm than a novel, a sort of 
death song in prose representing the intense spirit of rein- 
carnated New England Puritanism in its rapt vision of a 
new heaven and a new earth made sacred through suffering. 
The Civil War had but recently closed when the book 
appeared, and thousands of persons who had lost their 
loved ones in that terrible period found solace and comfort 
in the ecstatic vision set forth in Gates Ajar. Among Mrs. 
Ward's later works is Beyond the Gates (1883), which con- 
tinues the theme of her first famous work. She is somewhat 
more of a moralist than an artist perhaps, but her intense 
subjectivity and exalted idealism give a peculiar power to 
her stories, especially in soothing the hearts and stirring the 
moral natures of her many sympathetic readers. Rose 
Terry Cooke (182 7- 1892), of Connecticut, is both poet and 
short-story writer. She is particularly happy in her himior- 
ous characterization of New England types. Her best 
stories are collected in The Deacon's Week (1884) and 
Huckleberries Gathered from New England Hills (1891). 
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (185 7-) and Sarah Orne Jewett 
(1849-) have written a number of excellent short stories of 
New England life. Mrs. Freeman's best volumes of short 
stories are A Humble Romance (1887) and A New England 
Nun and Other Stories (1891). Miss Jewett 's best short 
stories are collected in the voltunes called A White Heron 
and Other Stories (1886) and Strangers and Wayfarers (1890). 
16 



242 History of American Literature 

Both of these women have written longer stories, Mrs. 
Freeman's best novels being Pembroke (1894) and The 
Portion of Labor (1901) ; and Miss Jewett's best longer works, 
Deephaven (187 1) and The Country of the Pointed Firs 
(1896). Alice Brown (1857-) of New Hampshire, is another 
women writer who has made good use of New England 
rural types in her fiction. Her dialect stories in Meadow 
Grass (1895), Tiverton Tales (1899), and The Country Road 
(1906) form her most distinctive contribution to the New 
England local-color literature already made familiar by the 
work of Miss Jewett and Mrs. Freeman. Some critics are 
inclined to rank Miss Brown's work even higher than that 
of the two other women just named. In the faithful repro- 
duction of the New England atmosphere, in humor, pathqs, 
and photographic realism, and in beauty and grace of style, 
Miss Brown's stories are certainly among the most artistic 
products of their kind. In her longer novels, too, such as 
The Story of Thyrza (1909) and John Winterborne's Family 
(19 10), she has succeeded in maintaining a high level of 
artistic power. 

William Dean Howells: his literary position. Two im- 
portant realists among New England fiction writers have 
been reserved for the close of this section — namely, William 
Dean Howells and Henry James, Jr. Though born and. 
reared in Ohio, William Dean Howells (183 7-) has become 
intimately associated with the great New England writers 
and he is inevitably classed' with them. He learned to 
set type in his youth, and he may be said to have educated 
himself largely at the printer's case and at editorial desks. 
In i860 with his friend John James Piatt he published a 
volimie called Poems of Two Friends. Howells then wrote 
a campaign biography of Abraham Lincoln, and in 1861 
he was rewarded by an appointment as consul at Venice, 
a position which he filled for four years. Here he developed 
his taste and increased his culture by a close study of 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 243 

Italian art and architecture. His four years in Venice 
may be called the period of his college education. As a 
result of his studies he published two excellent books of 
descriptive and critical observation, — namely, Venetian 
Life and Italian Journeys. These were but the preparation 
for the realistic fiction which he was to begin soon after his 
return to America. He had already had contributions 
accepted by The Atlantic Monthly, and in 186^ he became 
assistant editor of this important literary periodical. Then 
in 187 1 he was made editor-in-chief, a position which he held 
for ten years. Later he became associated with Harper's 
Monthly and The North American Review, and he is still 
(19 1 8) on the active staff of Harper's in the conduct of the 
Editor's Easy Chair. During this long period of over half 
a century in which he has been connected with these promi- 
nent periodicals, Mr. Howells has produced a marvelous 
number of excellent books. He is ranked among the very 
first of American literary critics, travel writers, and essay- 
ists, and in his capacity as editor and adviser of young writers 
he has justly earned the affectionate title of "Dean of 
American Letters." With his added accomplishments as a 
creative writer in his novels and literary farces, he is undoubt- 
edly the most distinguished of our present-day literary men. 
His novels. Howells's chief claim to permanent fame rests 
upon his realistic novels. The theory of fiction which he 
has expanded both in his critical writings and in his own 
practice is that a novel should present life as it really is, 
without the admixture of romantic elements which go to 
make up the larger part of most works of fiction. He 
realized that the artist must select his material from the 
mass of facts presented in real life and that the creative 
imagination must mold this material into an artistic whole; 
but he refused to admit improbable and highly colored inci- 
dents and romantic settings merely to increase interest. 
Their Wedding Journey (187 1) was the first of Howells's 



244 History oj American Literature 

long series of realistic narratives dealing with New England 
life and character. Perhaps the best among his thirty or 
more volumes which may be classed as fiction are A Foregone 
Conclusion (1874), The Lady of the Aroostook (1879), A Mod- 
ern Instance (1882), and The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885). 
Of these The Rise of Silas Lapham is usually considered 
Howells's masterpiece. It certainly takes rank among the 
four or five greatest American novels. After he was fifty 
years of age Howells came under the influence of the Russian 
philosopher and novelist Tolstoi, and from that time on his 
works showed a seriousness of purpose in the criticism of 
life which had been quite absent from his earlier stories. 
Of those more mature stories the best are A Hazard of New 
Fortunes (1889), The World of Chance (1893), The Traveler 
from Altruria (1894), and Through the Eye of a Needle (1907). 
His farces. In another type of literature Howells undoubt- 
edly takes precedence over all other American writers — 
namely, in the literary farce. The farce is not usually 
considered among the finer types of literature, but Howells 
has put into his farces so much of good, healthy humor; so 
much of genial satire, sparkling repartee, and brilliant wit; 
so much of keen analysis of real life and real characters that 
his productions in this kind must inevitably be recognized 
as belonging to pure literature. Among the best of his 
many farces are A Counterfeit Presentment, The Parlor Car, 
The Sleeping Car, The Elevator, The Mouse Trap, and The 
Unexpected Guest. 

Henry James, Jr.: his position. Henry James, Jr. 
(1843-19 1 5), was born in New York City, lived in Boston 
for a time, and was educated partly in Boston and partly 
abroad. He doubtless inherited his tendency toward 
subtle psychological analysis from his father, Henry James, 
the distinguished New England theologian; this point may 
be further substantiated by noting that the late William 
James, the brother of Henry James, Jr., was recognized as 



Artistic or Creative Period: New England Group 245 

the greatest American psychologist. In 1869 Henry James, 
Jr., went abroad, and he Hved most of his later life in France 
and England. In fact, so continuous was his residence in 
England that by many he is considered as an English rather 
than an American writer. Just before his death in 19 15, 
when the United States had not yet declared war against 
Germany, he renounced his allegiance to America and 
claimed citizenship in England in order to devote his prop- 
erty and his literary gifts more fully to the cause of the 
Allies in the great World War. But we may claim the 
works of this writer as at least partially American, and as 
such we are led to class him with the New England rather 
than the New York School. 

His fiction. The fiction of Henry James, Jr., is usually 
judged to be too difficult for young readers. He is, like 
Browning in poetry, a sort of "subtle analyst of the soul," and 
in his psychological studies he deals with material which is 
uninteresting because it is peculiar and unusual and largely 
unintelligible to young readers. But to older and more 
thoughtful readers James's work, particularly his earlier 
fiction, is a source of delight. In his later work his style 
becomes so complex, so hair-splitting in thought, and so 
shadowy, figurative, and obscure in expression, that very few 
readers can follow him with pleasure. He has been called 
the international novelist, because most of his books have a 
sort of international setting and deal with the peculiar 
point of view of persons of one nationality when brought into 
contrast with those of another nationality. His best stories 
are The American (1877), Daisy Miller (1878), An Inter- 
national Episode (1879), The Portrait of a Lady (1881), and 
The Wings of a Dove (1902). Among his best short stories 
may be named "The Real Thing," "The Lesson of the 
Master," and "Sir Edmund Ome," a ghost story. James's 
books of literary criticism, like his novels, demand close 
attention in the reading. His fine analysis of the style of 



246 History of American Literature 

our greatest novelist in his critical volume Nathaniel Haw- 
thorne in the English Men of Letters Series deserves special 
mention. James has done much critical work also in 
foreign literature, especially in his admirable estimates of 
French authors. 

III. The Southern Group 
Preliminary Survey 
General conditions in the South. The South was some- 
what slower than the North in developing her literary 
resources. It is true that during the colonial period, the 
first literature written within the present boundaries of the 
United States was produced in the Virginia Colony; but 
the attitude of the settlers in the Southern Colonies toward 
literature was always amateurish and incidental rather than 
professional and serious, and the result was that very few 
of the greater minds in the South during the first two and 
a half centuries of our history turned to literature as the 
principal sphere for their intellectual efforts. And even 
since 1865, on account of the scarcity of large cities and the 
almost total absence of publishing facilities, there have been 
no nationally important literary centers in the South. In 
a section devoted largely to varied agricultural pursuits, 
the people are naturally widely scattered and diverse in 
mode of life and thinking. On the other hand, in more 
concentrated and congested centers where commercial and 
manufacturing interests attract the population into large 
city groups, we should naturally expect literary centers 
and publishing interests to be developed. In the North 
and East, even before the beginning of the nineteenth 
century, New York, Philadelphia, and Boston had already 
grown into comparatively large commercial and manu- 
facturing centers. In the South there were scarcely any 
large cities or thickly populated districts even up to the end 
of the century. Baltimore, Charleston, Savannah, and 



Artistic or Creative Period: Southern Group 247 

New Orleans were ports of some importance, it is true; 
but with the single exception of Richmond, Virginia, the 
inland cities such as Columbia, vSouth Carolina, and Raleigh, 
North Carolina, were small in size and of little significance 
as literary centers. 

Charleston and Richmond as literary centers. Of all 
these towns Charleston and Richmond are the only ones 
thatmay be said to have become in any sense literary centers. 
At Charleston William Gilmore Simms was a sort of leader 
around whom a nimiber of ambitious young men like Paul 
Hamilton Hayne and Henry Timrod gathered, deferring 
to "his judgment and regarding him in literary matters as 
guide, philosopher, and friend. Besides Simms's home, 
John Russell's book store was one of their places of meeting. 
Here in 1857, the same year in which The Atlantic Monthly 
was founded, Russell's Magazine was launched under the 
editorship of Paul Hamilton Hayne. ^ This periodical bade 
fair to become a strong rival of The Southern Literary 
Messenger at Richmond, but it suspended publication at 
the approach of the Civil War. The dominant attitude of 
the Southern people seemed to be one of receptivity rather 
than active participation in literary matters. The Southern 
colonial gentleman preferred to get his education and his 
literature from England. Moreover, he looked upon liter- 
ature as a means of diversion and amusement for his idle 
moments rather than as a serious employment for his 
mature powers. To him the management of his estate and 
participation in politics made up the serious business of 
life. Even until late in the century, the common schools 
of the South lagged far behind the system of public educa- 
tion developed in the North and East. The methods of 
intercommunication were inadequate and poorly main- 
tained. Roads were bad, and mail routes were slow and 



1 See Hayne's essay on "Ante-bellum Charleston," reprinted in Library 
of Southern Literature, Vol. V. 



248 History of American Literature 

uncertain. Periodicals were few in niimber and com- 
manded only a meager patronage among the richer families. 
The Southern Literary Messenger (1834-1864) at Richmond, 
attained under the editorship of Poe, Thompson, and others, 
a notable rank it is true, in the quarter of a century imme- 
diately preceding the Civil War, but even this journal was 
forced to suspend publication near the close of the War. 

The influence of slavery. The economic success of negro 
slave-holding on Southern plantations had drawn most of 
the slaves from Northern and Eastern owners where slave 
labor was unprofitable, and so the South became the great 
slave section of our country long before the middle of the 
century. Slave traffickers and shipowners had found a 
profitable market for their trade in the South, and they 
prosecuted their business so successfully as to fill the country 
with African slaves. Though there were a few Southern 
slave owners who believed in the abolition of slavery, the 
South as a whole naturally took the position that slavery 
was a good thing both for the black and for the white race. 
The question of states' rights, or local self-government 
by the individual states, was closely bound up with 
the question of the abolition of slavery, and it was 
upon the constitutional grounds of states' rights that the 
argvunent for the continuation of slavery in the South was 
primarily based. The policy of territorial expansion and 
the creation of new states out of the territory acquired by 
the Florida and the Louisiana purchases also brought the 
question of slavery to the front, for it was necessary to 
determine beforehand whether the states to be carved out 
of the newly acquired territory should be free or slave- 
holding. Out of all this controversy there naturally arose in 
the South, as also in the North, a notable school of orators. 

Robert E. Lee, a typical Southerner. Just as Washington 
and Jefferson may be considered typical Southern figures 
in the earlier Colonial and Revolutionary civilization, so 



Artistic or Creative Period: Southern Group 249 

Robert Edward Lee (1807-1870) may be singled out as the 
culmination of the later Southern chivalry. He was bom of 
distinguished Southern ancestry, bred as a gentleman of the 
Old South, and educated as a soldier at the national military 
academy at West Point. The world has recognized him as 
one of the greatest soldiers of modem times, but we are 
here more interested in him as a typical product of the ante- 
bellum Southern civilization and as a writer of simple, 
dignified prose in his private letters and official reports. 
He possessed all the kindliness, gentility, and dignified 
reserve of the Southern planter class. His home at Arling- 
ton, just across the Potomac river at Washington City, is 
still one of the most beautiful and distinctive examples of 
the Colonial type of the Southern home. His character as 
a man even exceeds his reputation as a soldier. He was 
pure and iinsullied in heart, firm and upright in all his deal- 
ings, and profoundly religious in his nature. We do not 
think of him at all as a literary man, and yet his "Farewell 
Address to his Soldiers" and many of his private letters and 
official reports, both as commanding general of the Con- 
federate Army and as president of Washington and Lee 
University after the War, are models of the unconscious 
simplicity, dignity, and reser^^e which were characteristic of 
the man. His definition of truth as "the shortest distance 
between a fact and the expression of it," as well as the 
following well-known maxims from his advice to his son, 
will illustrate the cogency and precision with which he 
expressed his thoughts. 

Frankness is the child of honesty and courage. 

Never do a wrong to make a friend or to keep one. 

Deal kindly, but firmly, with all j^our classmates; you will find it 
the policy which will wear. 

Above all, do not appear to others what you are not. 

Duty, then, is the sublimest word in our language. 

Do your duty in all things. . . . You cannot do more; you should 
never do less. 



250 History of American Literature 

Localism in recent years. Following the bitter periods 
of controversy, war, and political reconstruction, which we 
need not stop to discuss here, came the period of readjust- 
ment and return to the peaceful arts of life. During this 
period one of the distinctive features developed in our 
national literature has been the growth of localism in the 
various sections of the country. In the South particularly 
has this note of localism found many well-defined forms of 
expression. In almost every Southern state there have 
arisen worthy writers of fiction and verse whose principal 
appeal has been in the interpretation of distinct racial types 
and social conditions and local backgrounds. The fact 
that there are certain more or less distinct and segregated 
groups or classes of people in the South has greatly stimu- 
lated the endeavor to express this note of localism. The 
Georgia "cracker," the Tennessee and Kentucky moun- 
taineer, the Louisiana Creole, the Texas cowboy and fron- 
tiersman, and the several types of negro life are some of the 
distinct classes which have attracted treatment in this 
local-color literature. In addition to these, the upper or 
ruling classes of white citizens, descended from the early 
English or Anglo-Saxon settlers, have distinct and more or 
less stable local characteristics. 

Classification of the authors. The major Southern poets 
as usually named are Edgar Allan Poe, Henry Timrod, Paul 
Hamilton Hayne, and Sidney Lanier. It is difficult to single 
out any of the prose writers who rise above the large school 
of minor authors, but we may name after Poe, who is 
equally notable in prose and poetry, William Gilmore Simms 
and John Pendleton Kennedy among the older writers, and 
Joel Chandler Harris, F. Hopkinson Smith, Thomas Nelson 
Page, George Washington Cable, and O. Henry (Sydney 
Porter) among the later writers. Simms and Kennedy can 
hardly be ranked as authors of great national importance, 
though Simms approaches such a standard; but their 



Artistic or Creative Period: Southern Group 251 

influence in the South, where literature was slow in develop- 
ing, certainly gives them a prominent place in their own 
section. Joel Chandler Harris in his successful exploitation 
of negro folk-lore, and in his incidental character creation, 
has distinguished himself somewhat more permanently than 
have his contemporary writers of local-color fiction, and 
O. Henry has made a place for himself by his distinct 
advance in the art of the American short story. We may 
conveniently discuss the Southern authors under the division 
of Orators, Posts, and Writers of Fiction. 

SOUTHERN ORATORS 

Oratory in the South. Throughout the history of the 
nation the South has been particularly prolific in the pro- 
duction of distinguished orators and political writers. 
Southerners have always seemed to take more naturally to 
legal and forensic debate, political writing, and oratory than 
to the milder and more purely artistic forms of literary 
expression. They have uniformly proved themselves to be 
skilful manipulators of public bodies in spontaneous spoken 
address. In fact, the energy of the best Southern minds 
has been largely expended in the development of political 
and other forms of emotional or spontaneous oratory. For- 
merly in the South every ambitious youth turned to politics 
and law as a career, and rarely thought of taking up pure 
literature except as a side issue or with* some feeling of 
condescension. During the earlier periods of our national 
history such names as Richard Henry Lee, Patrick Henry, 
Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, James Madison, 
John Marshall, and John Randolph, all of Virginia; Charles 
Pinckney, Henr}- Laurens, and John Rutledge of South 
Carolina; and William Pinkney of Maryland are synony- 
mous with the best of early American oratorical and forensic 
power and achievement. A long list of notable Southerners 
who have risen to oratorical eminence since these early 



252 History of American Literature 

times might be given here, but it seems better to confine 
our brief notice to a few of the most important orators of 
the nineteenth century. 

William Wirt. WilHam Wirt (i 772-1834), of Maryland 
and later of Virginia, has already been mentioned as the 
biographer of Patrick Henry, and in this connection it was 
noted that it is impossible to tell just how much of Henry's 
famous speech on liberty we owe to Wirt's own facile and 
fluent pen. It is certain that Wirt possessed the instinct 
for effective oratory, as is amply illustrated by his famous 
speech at the trial of Aaron Burr for treason, and by his 
oft-repeated piece called "The Blind Preacher," said to be 
an accurate portrayal of the Reverend James Waddell, a 
noted Presbyterian minister of Virginia. The last-named 
selection is to be found in the volume called Letters of a 
British Spy (1803), a series of letters which, as the author 
pretended, were left in an American inn by a British officer. 
This and The Life of Patrick Henry (181 7) are the chief 
contributions of Wirt to our literature. He wrote in a 
somewhat florid and emotional style, but he had acquired 
from his model, the Spectator papers, a good deal of the 
grace and finish of the Addisonian prose, and he was recog- 
nized in the early nineteenth century, according to Professor 
Trent, as "the most conspicuous literary man in the South." 

Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and Robert Y. Hajrne. 
During the long controversial period which preceded the 
Civil War, Henry Clay (i 777-1852), bom in Virginia but 
reared in Kentucky, John Caldwell Calhoun (1782-1850), 
and Robert Young Hayne (i 791-1839), both of South 
Carolina, were the most prominent of the earlier Southern 
leaders in Congress. Clay was a natural orator and a born 
conciliator. Because of his efforts to compromise the 
differences between the North and the South, he is known 
in history as "the great pacificator." Calhoun is recognized 
as the profoundest expositor of the doctrine of states' rights 



Artistic or Creative Period: Southern Group 253 

and the strict construction of the Constitution, and the 
chief opponent of the Northern school advocating union 
and strong federal centralization, led by Daniel Webster 
and the later abolitionists. Hayne was a disciple of Calhoun 
in his interpretation of the doctrine of states' rights and the 
Constitution. In what is known as "The Great Debate" 
(1830), Hayne was pitted against Webster. While history 
has decided in favor of Webster's position, contemporary 
opinion records that Hayne proved himself a worthy oppo- 
nent to the great New England orator. 

L. Q. C. Lamar and Henry W. Grady. Since the Civil 
War, particularly during the period of reconciliation follow- 
ing the period of reconstruction, two names stand out with 
peculiar prominence in the banishment of sectional animosity 
and the re-welding of the North and the South — namely, 
those of L. Q. C. Lamar (1825-1893), of Mississippi, whose 
"Eulogy on Charles Sumner" is one of the glories of Ameri- 
can oratory, and Henry Woodfin Grady (1851-1889), of 
Georgia, whose eloquent speeches on "The New South," 
delivered in 1886 before the New England Society of New 
York City, "The South and Her Problems," delivered at 
Dallas, Texas, in 1887, and "The Race Problem," delivered 
in Boston just a few weeks before his death in '1889, are 
recognized as three of the most impassioned and finished 
orations in our literature.^ 

THE MAJOR SOUTHERN POETS 

Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar Allan Poe (i 809-1 849), though 
descended on his father's side from a distinguished Mary- 
land family, once called himself a Bostonian because he was 
bom in the city of Boston; but he was reared in the South, 
and he usually designated himself as a Southerner, and he 
is generally so regarded. His genius, however, knew no 

iPor Lamar's "Eulogy on Sumner" and extracts from Grady's speeches, 
with biographical sketches and portraits of these orators, see Payne s 
Southern Literary Readings, Rand McNally & Co., 1913. 



2 54 History of American Literature 

restrictions of territory; in fact, Poe is perhaps the most 
universally detached of all our poets. His father, David 
Poe, was educated for the law, but a predilection for the 
stage led him to join a traveling theatrical troupe before he 
built up a practice. In this troupe he met Mrs. C. D. 
Hopkins, an actress of English extraction, whose maiden 
name was Elizabeth Arnold. Shortly after the death of Mr. 
Hopkins, who was manager of the company, David Poe 
manied the widow. Of the three children — two boys and 
a girl — born to David and Elizabeth Arnold Poe, Edgar 
was the second son. 

How Poe fell in with the Allans. The life of these strolling 
actors was a hard one. The family was forced to travel 
from city to city in order to earn a livelihood which was at 
best precarious. It seems that the mother was depended 
upon to support the family, for David Poe was not a success- 
ful actor. Mrs. Poe was filling an engagement in Boston at 
the time of Edgar's birth, January 19, 1809. Her husband 
died about 18 10, and in 181 1 she found herself in the city of 
Richmond, Virginia, helpless and stricken with illness. An 
appeal in the Richmond newspapers brought material relief; 
but Mrs. Poe was beyond human aid, and within a few days 
she died. The children, thus left alone, were cared for by 
various persons. Edgar had attracted the attention of Mrs. 
John Allan, the wife of a well-to-do tobacco merchant, and 
he was taken into her childless home and rechristened Edgar 
Allan Poe. 

Poe's education. The boy was an extremely bright and 
handsome child, and his precocity attracted much attention. 
Mr. and Mrs. Allan became devotedly attached to their 
ward and lavished on him all that partiality could suggest or 
wealth supply. In 181 5 Mr. Allan moved temporarily to 
England, to establish there a branch house for his firm. 
Edgar, who accompanied his foster parents, attended an 
English, boarding school near London. In the story of 




From a rare lithograph portrait made in 1859 by F. J . Fisher, 
now in possession of the Westmoreland Club, Richmond, Va. 

EDGAR ALLAN POE 



256 History of American Literature 

"William Wilson" Poe gives many reminiscences of his 
school life there. After five years in England the Allans 
returned to Richmond, and Edgar was placed in a private 
school. In 1826 he was sent to the University of Virginia. 
Here he made a brilliant record in the languages and in 
mathematics, but he indulged in drinking and gambling and 
was removed from the university within a year. 

Poe goes to Boston: " Tamerlane.'' Then began the period 
of wandering and unhappiness brought about by his perverse 
disposition. Mr. Allan, whose patience had already been 
sorely tried, took Poe into his office, feeling it would be 
better for the boy to earn his own living; whereupon Poe, 
who was now about eighteen years old, left home to seek 
his fortune in Boston. Here he succeeded in getting a 
publisher for his first slender volinne of verses, Tamerlane 
and Other Poems, in 1827, but little is known of his move- 
ments during the time he was in Boston. 

Poe's military experience. The next we hear of Poe, he 
had enlisted, under the assumed name of Edgar A. Perry, 
as a private in the United States Army. He remained in 
the army for nearly two years, being promoted to the post 
of sergeant major. Part of the time he was stationed at 
the arsenal of Fort Moultrie, on an island in Charleston 
Harbor. Here he gained the local color for his famous 
story, "The Gold Bug," written some years later. Poe 
now began to feel the folly of his breach with his foster 
parents, and on hearing that Mrs. Allan was critically ill 
he made application for a permit to visit Richmond, in 
order that he might see her before her death. A partial 
reconciliation followed between him and Mr. Allan, who 
secured Poe's release from the army, and with the aid of 
influential friends obtained for him an appointment to the 
United States Military Academy at West Point. But the 
perversity of the young man's nature again asserted itself, 
and in less than a year he began to tire of life at West Point. 



Artistic or Creative Period: Southern Group 257 

He deliberately neglected his duties until he had accumulated 
demerits enough to cause his dismissal. 

The i8ji edition of his poems. Before he entered West 
Point, another edition of his poems, containing some new 
matter, had been published; and in 1831 still another was 
brought out. This volume contained the first draft of 
some of Poe's most famous poems, notably "To Helen" 
and "Israfel," which are now universally recognized as 
masterpieces in the pure lyric. 

Poe's first stories. Mr. Allan had married again by this 
time, and Poe, finding that he had no longer any hope of 
a Reconciliation with his foster parent, now turned to his 
father's relatives for help and sympathy. He made various 
attempts to secure employment, but was unsuccessful. In 
1833 he won with his "MS. Found in a Bottle" the fifty- 
dollar prize offered by The Baltimore Saturday Visitor for 
the best short story submitted. Poe sent in several stories 
and poems, and won two prizes, the second being twenty- 
five dollars for the best poem; but the judges refused to 
give both prizes to one competitor. 

His marriage: editor of "Southern Literary Messenger.'' 
It was at this period of his life that Poe's love for his 
cousin, Virginia Clemm, sprang up. She was a beautiful 
girl twelve or thirteen years of age at the time, and Poe 
desired even then to make her his wife. In 1835, when he 
had secured regular employment as editor of The Southern 
Literary Messenger of Richmond, Mrs. Clemm moved to that 
city, and Poe and Virginia were married, the latter being 
then not quite fourteen years old. Poe had a fixed salary 
now, and his success seemed assured. His articles, stories, 
and poems were attracting wide notice, and the circulation 
of the Messenger was rapidly increasing. But in 1837, 
perhaps on account of his irregular habits, he retired from 
the editorship which he had so acceptably filled for a year 
or more. 

17 



258 History of American Literature 

Other editorial positions: more short stories. Other editorial 
schemes were now tried. Poe went first to New York, 
then to Philadelphia, and did some Hterary hack work. 
In 1839 he obtained an editorial position on Burton's 
Gentleman' s Magazine, but within a year he severed his 
connection with this periodical. He published in 1839 a 
volume of short stories called Tales of the Grotesque and 
the Arabesque. This volume brought him no money, but 
it broadened his fame. In 1841 he became editor of 
Graham's Magazine, and* within a few months the circulation 
of this periodical increased from five thousand to thirty- 
seven thousand. Poe was now publishing some of his 
most original short stories, such as "The Murders in the 
Rue Morgue," "The Masque of the Red Death," and 
others. In 1842 the erratic editor of Graham's Magazine 
was supplanted by R. W. Griswold. The story goes that 
Poe disappeared for a few days, as was his peculiar custom, 
and when he returned to the office he found Griswold 
seated in the editorial chair. Without waiting for explana- 
tions, Poe turned on his heel and left the office. He con- 
tinued, however, to be a contributor to this periodical, and 
was on friendly terms with the owner. 

''The Raven." Other ventures in editorial work and 
original schemes for founding an independent magazine 
occupied Poe at this time, but he seems never to have 
been able to put his plans into operation or to get on in 
the world. He gained wide fame through "The Raven," 
which was published in 1845, and a new edition of his 
verses with this poem leading in the title was issued in the 
fall of the same year. The next year, he took up his resi- 
dence in the famous cottage at Fordham, near New York 
City. Here he tried to make a living by his contributions 
to various magazines, but he was continually yielding to 
his taste for drink and the use of opium. His young wife 
was desperately ill, his own health failed, and the whole 



Artistic or Creative Period: Southern Group 259 

family, including Mrs. Clemm, his mother-in-law, was for a 
time dependent upon public charity. 

Poe's last days. In 1847 his young wife died. From this 
time on to the end of his life, Poe seems to have been a broken- 
hearted and hopeless man. Once or twice he made a real 
effort to throw off the terrible gloom and the distressing 
habits which had gained such a grip on him. His genius had 
not yet been exhausted, for he produced in these last years 
some of his most exquisite lyric poems, such as "Ulalume," 
"The Bells," and "Annabel Lee." He was unable to make 
a living, however. He tried to earn something by lecturing, 
but he failed to attract an audience in New York. He 
then went South, and here he met with more success. At 
Richmond his friends rallied to his support, and in a benefit 
lecture he realized about fifteen hundred dollars. He in- 
tended to return to New York, where Mrs. Clemm was 
anxiously waiting to hear from him and learn his plans, but 
he never reached that city. Mystery hangs about his last 
days. No one knows what happened to him after he left 
Richmond on September 30, 1849. When his friends found 
him three days later, he was lying unconscious in a saloon 
which had been used as one of the ward polling places in 
a city election at Baltimore. The physician who. attended 
him, and had him taken to Washington Hospital, testified 
that Poe was not drunk but drugged. The theory now 
generally accepted is that he fell into the hands of a corrupt 
electioneering gang, was drugged and robbed, and then 
carried around from polling place to polling place and made 
to vote under false names. On Sunday morning, October 
7, 1849, the ill-starred poet passed quietly away. 

Estimate of Poe's character. Such was the life of the 
strangest and most unfortunate of all American men of 
letters. There are those who condemn Poe as an ingrate, 
a degenerate, a reprobate; but those more charitably in- 
clined consider him an unfortunate son of genius who was 



26o History of American Literature 

unable, from his very nature, to control his actions. That 
he was unreliable, erratic, intemperate, his most ardent 
admirers will not deny. That he was dishonest, immoral, 
or licentious, his enemies will hesitate to afhrm. That he 
was his own worst enemy, all will readily admit. His life 
is one to "point a moral or adorn a tale." 

Classification of Poe's works. Poe's literary output 
clearly falls under three important headings, — namely, 
(i) his literary criticism, (2) his poetry, and (3) his- short 
stories. 

Poe's criticism. Poe is far and away the most important 
American literary critic of the first half of the nineteenth 
century. Of course much of his criticism is ephemeral, 
being made up for the most part of hastily written book 
reviews and general editorial and journalistic work con- 
tributed under pressure to the various magazines with which 
he was connected. He had a very keen critical sense and 
very definite critical principles, however, and on various 
occasions in set essays or lectures he enunciated these 
principles in such form as to make them of permanent 
value. For example, in writing a review of Hawthorne's 
Twice-Told Tales in 1842, he set forth very succinctly his 
theory of the short story, and his ideas have proved of such 
importance as to make this review a locus classicus in the 
criticism of this popular form of modern literary art. 

A skilful literary artist has constructed a tale. If wise, he has not 
fashioned his thoughts to accommodate his incidents; but having 
conceived, with deliberate care, a certain unique or single effect to be 
wrought out, he then invents such incidents — he then combines such 
events as may best aid him in establishing this preconceived effect. 
If his very initial sentence tend not to the outbringing of this effect, 
then he has failed in his first step. In the whole composition there 
should be no words written, of which the tendency, direct or indirect, 
is not to the one pre-established design. 

In his lecture on "The Poetic Principle" and in his essay 
called "The Philosophy of Composition," Poe has similarly 



Artistic or Creative Period: Southern Group 261 

expounded his theories on the composition of poetry. He 
claimed that to produce the proper emotional effect a poem 
should not be primarily didactic or moral in aim, that is, 
its main aim should not be to teach a lesson or inculcate a 
moral; and it should not be unduly long or undiily brief. 
A long poem, he contended, is a contradiction of terms, for 
if the emotional tension is continued beyond a certain point 
it becomes painful rather than pleasurable, and thus the 
whole aim of poetry, which, according to Poe, is to give 
pleasure through the rhythmical creation of beauty, would 
be completely vitiated or destroyed. Similarly if a poem is 
so condensed as to become epigrammatic or too highly 
intellectualized, it precludes the pleasurable emotion which 
is essential to the poetic mood. He also held that sadness 
is an essential element in the highest poetic beauty and that 
the death of a beautiful woman is the most poetical of all 
themes. In "The Philosophy of Composition" Poe pro- 
fesses to explain in detail, by way of example, his own method 
of procedure in composing "The Raven," his most popular 
poem. Poe's theories of poetry are not to be accepted abso- 
lutely, because they are too narrow and confined in their 
point of view to be applied universally. In all fairness, 
however, it must be admitted that in his own compositions 
Poe succeeded admirably in vindicating his theories. 

Poe's poetry. There are many critics, both at home and 
abroad, who esteem Poe as the greates.t poetical genius pro- 
duced in America. Unquestionably his lyrics possess a 
peculiarly haunting, mysterious, illusive, romantic beauty. 
Unquestionably, also, his poetry is unique and original in 
tone, subject-matter, and conception. Though he was 
strongly influenced by Byron, Hood, Coleridge, Shelley, and 
Tennyson among English poets, he disdained mere servile 
imitation, and he now and again essayed to invent an 
entirely new rhythmic form, as in the case of the original 
stanza employed in "The Raven." Poe's theories of poetry, 



262 History of American Literature 

as explained above, were apparently made to fit his own 
practice. He wrote no poetry of a strictly epic character, 
he was not successful in his attempts at dramatic poetry, 
nor did he write any very long poems. But in the briefer 
lyric forms he admirably fulfilled his own theories. His 
best poems are Hterally "the rhythmic creation of beauty." 
They are rich in musical effects, brought about by the use 
of alliteration, onomatopoeia, double and frequently repeated ' 
rimes, the refrain, the repetend, and other musical devices. 
He is particularly happy in the invention and adaptation 
of proper names of a highly musical quality, such, for exam- 
ple, as Lenore, Eulalie, Annabel Lee, Ulalume, Ligeia, 
Israfel, Al Aaraf, Auber, Yaanek. In his poetry, as also 
in his prose tales he often strikes the solemn and lugubrious 
note of death, mystery, and the tomb, and the plaintive 
tone of unfulfilled desire and aspiration. He has filled his 
pages with wistful, mystical, romantic figures, Hke flitting 
spirits from another world. A veil of ethereal imagination 
is draped over all that he wrote, and his most characteristic 
productions are tinged with a quality of weirdness, melan- 
choly, and unsatisfied longing thoroughly in harmony with 
his conception of what the highest poetry should be. Among 
his best poems for young readers to study in order to discover 
for themselves these quaUties are "The Raven." "The 
Bells," "Eldorado," "Annabel Lee," "To Helen," "Israfel." 
"The Haunted Palace," "The Sleeper," "The City in the 
Sea," "The Coliseum." 

Classification of Poes short stories. Poe's most distinc- 
tive service to our literature is the work he did in developing 
and standardizing the short story as a distinct Uterary form. 
He not only laid down the strict canons for the structure of 
the modern short-story, but he showed conclusively in his 
own practice the soundness and correctness of these canons. 
He was not the first of American short-story writers, for 
Irving and Hawthorne preceded him in the writing of excellent 



Artistic or Creative Period: Southern Group 263 

short narratives which must be admitted into the modern 
art form known as the short story. But he certainly was 
the first to conceive the essential elements of this type of 
literary art, and he left the stamp of his own genius so dis- 
tinctly upon it that his influence has been far greater than 
that of either of his distinguished predecessors. Of the 
many classifications of Poe's stories, perhaps the simplest 
and most easily remembered is the one which groups them 
into two principal classes and one subordinate class: (i) 
the analytical stories, or as he himself called them, the 
stories of ratiocination, including the strictly analytical 
stories like "The Gold Bug" and the detective stories, and 
the less important pseudo-scientific stories dealing with 
curious natural phenomena; and (2) the stories of horror 
and kindred emotions, in which resort is constantly made 
by Poe to themes of mystery, death, the supernatural, the 
fantastic, the weird, the uncanny. To these two principal 
classes may be added a third much inferior type of miscel- 
laneous stories, including the minor sketches, such as "The 
Domain of Arnheim," "The Man of the Crowd"; the 
attempts at whimsical humor, such as "Loss of Breath," 
"The Devil in the Belfry," "X-ing a Paragrab"; and the 
pure allegories, "Silence" and "Shadow." 

Poe's analytical stories. To the first group belong the 
cryptogrammatic or puzzle stories, of which "The Gold 
Bug" is typical. Poe had a wonderful analytic faculty, and 
he was exceedingly fond of working out cryptograms and 
puzzles and unraveling situations of mystery. He once 
dumbfounded Charles Dickens by minutely forecasting the 
solution of the mystery of Barnaby Rudge long before the 
novel was completed. In applying his analytical faculty 
to the unraveling of famous murder mysteries and the like, 
Poe may be said to have invented the modem detective 
story. "The Murders of the Rue Morgue," "The Mystery 
of Marie Roget," and "The Purloined Letter" are his great 



264 History of American Literature 

detective stories. M. Dupin, the famous French detective 
who appHed with marvelous precision the simple laws of 
deductive logic to the solving of apparently baffling mys- 
teries, has become the model for later writers of detective 
stories. Sir A. Conan Doyle, the English writer, has con- 
fessed his indebtedness to Poe in the creation of his own 
famous detective, Sherlock Holmes. Poe's stories of mys- 
tery are usually more attractive to young readers than his 
more artistic stories of horror. "The Gold Bug" is perhaps 
the prime favorite of all. To this group may be. added the 
realistic pseudo-scientific stories of strange natural phenom- 
ena, such as "The Unparalleled Adventure of one Hans 
Pfaall," describing with Defoe-like plausibility a trip to the 
moon; "Narrative of A. Gordon Pym," Poe's longest story; 
and "A Descent into the Maelstro:n." This last might 
readily be classed among the tales of fear or horror, but its 
chief interest seems to center in the realistic presentation of 
the laws of suction as exhibited in the huge whirlpool. 

Poe's tales of horror. The second class contains Poe's 
most artistic work, for he was at his best in portraying the 
emotions of horror, fear, revenge, remorse of conscience, and 
the like. "The Fall of the House of Usher" is usually 
selected by critics as the supreme example of Poe's art in 
the short-story form. In this story Poe exemplified his own 
theories almost perfectly. He settled at once upon the 
"preconceived unique effect" of the peculiar type of horror 
produced by premature burial and sudden death. The 
dominant tone is struck in the initial sentence. The setting 
is one of gloom and mystery. The characters are obsessed 
with uncanny visions of trances, premature burials, and 
ghost-like resurrections from the grave. The storm without 
is but a lugubrious accompaniment to the strange phan- 
tasms of the diseased minds within. The lurid tarn, the 
miasmatic effluvia, and finally the blood-red moon are fit 
accessories to the scene. Every sound, every color, every 



Aitistic or Creative Period: Southern Group 265 

motion, every article of furniture, even the very atmosphere 
of the old mansion breathes of dankness and decay and 
death. The uncanny musical improvisations of Roderick 
Usher, his allegorical poem of "The Haunted Palace," the 
strange tale he is reading, the mysterious trance-death of 
his wraith-like sister Madeline, all conspire to enhance the 
wildly imaginative appeal of the catastrophe. No sensitive 
person can read this tale without shuddering and trembling 
with fear. Scarcely inferior to "The Fall of the House of 
Usher" in artistic power are "The Cask of Amontillado," a 
story of revenge ; " Ligeia," a mystical story of the reincarna- 
tion of a beautiful woman after death, claiined by Poe to 
be his most perfect story; "The Pit and the Pendulum," 
a story of the horrors of the medieval inquisition; "The 
Masque of the Red Death," a fantasia of death produced by 
a most repulsive disease; "William Wilson," a story dealing 
with the two natures in man, a theme which later attracted 
Robert Louis Stevenson in his powerful story "Dr. Jekyll 
and Mr. Hyde." In tales like "The Black Cat" and "The 
Tell-tale Heart," though these are extremely fascinating to 
readers who delight in "thrillers," Poe has somewhat im- 
paired the artistic effect by overdoing the horror motive. 
All in all, however, his horror stories are his most original 
contribution to American literature.^ 

Henry Timrod. Time has dealt both harshly and kindly 
with Henry Timrod (1829-1867). During his life this 
young South Carolinian suffered perhaps more than any one 
of his long-suffering fellow poets of the Civil War and Recon- 
struction periods, but gradually his fame has expanded until 
now he is universally recognized as one of the four or five 
major poets of the South, being placed second only to Lanier 
and Poe. His work at times undoubtedly reaches a higher 



^The authoritative biography of Poe is that by George E. Woodberry, 
published in two volumes in 1909. An excellent brief treatment with a 
full bibliography by Dr. Killis Campbell may be found in The Cambridge 
History of American Literature, Vol. II, 1918. 




From a portrait in the possession of the Charleston 
Library Society. Com lesy of the trustees 

HENRY TIMROD 



Artistic or Creative Period: Southern Group 267 

level than that of his lifelong friend, Paul Hamilton Hayne, 
and the actual product of his thirty-seven years of ill-starred , 
poverty-stricken, disease-haunted life, though but an indica- 
tion of what he might have accomplished under more favor- 
able circumstances, yet gives him the right to an honorable 
place among the song-crowned sons of America. 

Timrod and Hayne. Like Paul Hayne, Henry Timrod 
came of an excellent family, who in Revolutionary times had 
settled in the aristocratic and cultured city of Charleston, 
South Carolina. There was less than a month's difference 
between the birthdays of the two poets, Timrod being born 
on December 8, 1829, and Hayne on January i, 1830. The 
boys became friends while attending the same private 
school in Charleston. They sat together for a time at the 
same desk and thus became intimate cronies. 

Timrod's education. Although Timrod is described as a 
shy and timid youth, slow of speech but quick to lear-n, he 
was a thoroughly likable lad, and was a general favorite 
among his playmates. He took an active part in all out- 
door sports and games, even in fighting, and he was fond of 
getting away from the city to take long rambles in the woods. 
When he was about seventeen years old, Timrod entered 
the University of Georgia with bright prospects. -He made 
a fairly good record as a student, especially in the classics 
and other literary branches, and he spent much of his time 
in verse-making. His education was cut short through lack 
of financial means, however, and he left college without a 
degree. This was the first great disappointment of his life. 

Efforts to earn a livelihood. Returning to Charleston, he 
entered the office of the Honorable J. L. Petigru, one of the 
best-known lawyers of the city, to prepare for a professional 
career; but he soon found law work distasteful and his pre- 
ceptor uncongenial, and so he went out to earn his livelihood 
by tutoring in private families. Aspiring to a professorship 
in the classics, Timrod read diligently to prepare himself for 



268 History of American Literature 

this work. But he was born under an unlucky star, it seems, 
for he was always approaching very near to, but never quite 
realizing, his most cherished desires. He found no suitable 
opening for a successful teaching career, and so for about 
ten years he toiled on at private tutoring here and there, 
wherever he found work. 

Ttmrod's early poems. All this time poetry was his con- 
stant companion and consolation. He contributed both 
prose and verse to Southern literary journals, such sls Russell's 
Magazine and The Southern Literary Messenger. He pub- 
lished a small volume of poems in i860, and as Hayne said, 
' ' a better first volume of the kind has seldom appeared any- 
where. " In this volirme were "The Lily Confidante, " "A 
Vision of Poesy, " and other worthy efforts. The book was 
well received by the reviewers, but there could not have 
been in the whole history of our country, perhaps, a more 
unpropitious moment for the publication of a volume of 
purely nature and personal lyrics. The people were in no 
mood to read Icve songs or disquisitions on the technique of 
poetry. Again we find disappointment and failure Timrod's 
portion, for there were few buyers of his modest volimie, and 
consequently no material returns to the young author. 

Thnrod's war poetry. But hope smiled anew, and Tim- 
rod threw himself with intense zeal into the approaching 
struggle between the sections. He was too frail physically 
to bear arms or undergo the hardships of military life, but 
he went to the front as war correspondent for The Charleston 
Mercury, and was continually helping the Southern cause by 
composing the fiery war songs which gave him such wide 
fame in those years of struggle and which won for him a 
place in the foremost rank of Southern war poets. His 
" Ethnogenesis, " written in February, 1S61, on the birth of 
the Southern Confederacy at Montgomery, Alabama, is a 
magnificent ode, and except for the fact that it celebrates a 
"lost cause" there is no doubt that long ago it would have 



Artistic or Creative Period: Southern Group 269 

been recognized as one of the best productions in this kind 
of poetry. By far the best-known and most highly praised 
of Timrod's longer poems, "The Cotton Boll," was written 
about the same time. Though more strictly a nature poem, 
it concludes with a strong patriotic appeal, and is sometimes 
classed as a war poem. His "Carolina" and "A Cry to 
Arms" are stirring war songs. These poems, and many 
others like them, were widely circulated and enthusiastically 
received all over the South. So prominent had Timrod 
become as a representative Southern poet that in 1862 his 
friends proposed to bring out an illustrated edition of his 
poems in England, the artist Vizetelli, then war correspon- 
dent of The London Illustrated News, promising to supply 
the engravings. But in the stress of the war period the 
project fell through, and again, on the very threshold of 
success, our poet met his old foes, misfortune and dis- 
appointment. 

His marriage: '' Katie.'' Early in 1864 Timrod accepted 
an editorial position on The South Carolinian of Columbia, 
South Carolina, and with the prospect for permanent 
employment he piarried Miss Kate Goodwin, an English 
girl. This lady was the ideal of many of his poetic fancies 
and the inspiration of some of his best love pogms. The 
long poem "Katie," which celebrates the beauty and charm 
of Miss Goodwin, is full of exquisite imagery and fine de- 
scriptive passages. 

. Effects of the War on Timrod. Little more than a year 
of happiness was vouchsafed him. On December 24, 1864, 
was born to him a son, the "Little Willie" whom he mourns 
in a pathetic lyric in less than a year after the child's birth. 
After the death of his son the poet lost much of his hopeful- 
ness and buoyancy. General Sherman's army had destroyed 
the beautiful city of Columbia almost exactly one year after 
the date of Timrod's marriage, and there was nothing left 
to him but poverty and distress from that time on to the 



270 History of American Literature 

end of his life. He tried to bear up bravely. In a letter 
to his friend Hayne in 1866 he humorously refers to the 
gradual sale of what little furniture and silverware had 
been saved from the wreck, to meet the bare necessities 
of existence: "We have — let me see — yes, we have eaten 
two silver pitchers, one or two dozen silver forks, several 
sofas, innumerable chairs, and a huge bedstead." He 
continued his work on The Carolinian, — the paper had now 
been moved to Charleston, — but in a letter to Hayne he 
stated that for foiu* months he had not received a dollar 
of his promised salary. 

Timrod's visit to Hayne. One brief respite came before 
the end, when in the summer of 1867 Timrod, by the advice 
of his physicians and at the urgent solicitation of his old 
friend, went for two visits of about one month each to "Copse 
Hill," the home of Paul Hamilton Hayne, who was now 
living in the pine barrens of Georgia about sixteen miles 
from Augusta. Hayne writes sympathetically of their 
comradeship during these visits, both in his introductory 
memoir in the 1873 edition of Timrod's poems and in his 
beautiful reminiscences of the poet in "Under the Pine" 
and "By the Grave of Henry Timrod." From this visit, 
though greatly revived in spirits and apparently in health 
also, Timrod returned home to die. On September 13, 
he wrote to Hayne that he had suffered a severe hemorrhage 
from the lungs, and this was speedily followed by others, 
still more severe. He died October 7, 1867. 

Timrod's fame growing. Since the publication in 1889, 
by the Timrod Memorial Society, of his poems, Timrod's 
grave in Trinity Church Cemetery, Columbia, which for 
many years remained unmarked, and for many more was 
designated only by a small shaft erected by a few of his 
admirers, has been marked with a huge bowlder of gray 
granite. Historians of American literature have been 
drawn to give more prominence to Timrod's work, and 



Artistic or Creative Period: Southern Group 271 

what is quite as gratifying, his poetry is being read and 
studied more and more every year.^ 

Paul Hamilton Hayne. Paul Hamilton Hayne (1830- 
1886), a nephew of the distinguished statesman and orator 
Robert Young Hayne, was born in Charleston, South Caro- 
lina, on New Year's Day, in 1830. His father. Lieutenant 
Paul Hamilton Hayne of the United States Navy, died 
when Paul was a mere infant, and the boy was brought 
up amid the wealth and luxury of his uncle's home. 
He received careful training in the best schools of Charleston 
and he later entered Charleston College, from which he was 
graduated in 1850. 

Hayne' s editorial work: his early volumes of poems. Like 
many young Southerners of good family, Hayne prepared 
himself for the bar, but the call of poetry was stronger than 
that of the law. He became an associate editor of The 
Southern Literary Messenger, and later co-founder and editor 
of RusselVs Magazine, which he made a decided success. 
He published a volume of poems in 1855, and three other 
volumes followed — Sonnets and Other Poems (1857), Avolio 
and Other Poems (i860), Legends and Lyrics (1872), and a 
complete edition of his poems, arranged by himself and 
published with an introductory biographical sketch by his 
friend and fellow poet, Margaret J. Preston, about four 
years before his death on July 6, 1S86. 

Hayne's experiences during the War. The Civil War 
came on just in time to interfere seriously with the develop- 
ment of his genius and the spread of his fame. True, he 
threw himself whole-heartedly into the struggle, writing a 
number of good war poems; but his muse was better suited 
to the home, the winter fireside, and the summer forest 
retreat than to the battle-field, the march, and the camp. 
In spite of his delicate constitution and frail physique he 

iPor appreciations of Timrod see the Introduction to the memorial 
volume of his poems and the essay on him in the Library of Southern 
Literature, Vol. XII. 



272 History of American Literature 

volunteered his services to the Confederate cause, becoming 
an aide on Governor Pickens's staff. 

His life at ''Copse Hill.'' Home, Ubrary, weahh, all were 
swept away by the war. When peace came, Hayne moved 
with his devoted wife and only son, William Hamilton (who 
is himself a poet of no mean ability), into the pine barrens 
of Georgia, and settled in a little cottage — or, rather, log 
cabin — near Augusta. In this primitive home, which he 
named "Copse Hill," he spent the remainder of his life, 
striving to build up his health, and devoting himself exclu- 
sively to literature for a livelihood. His poems and prose 
articles found a ready reception in the magazines and 
periodicals of the North as well as in those of the South, 
but the remuneration was small and the family was forced 
to live under the severest economy. 

Value of Hayne's work. Hayne's lyric genius has been 
highly praised, but he is still little more than a name to 
many readers. North and South. He wrote a large amount 
of poetry of a singularly uniform excellence, but no single 
poem so far superior to the great mass of his work as to 
make itself particularly noteworthy. Poets of far less 
literary merit are more generally known, through some 
single popular work, while Hayne, for the very reason of 
his uniform excellence, is neglected. He was not strikingly, 
original in his poetry, but he had an individual note, and 
his art was rarely at fault. He deserves a more generous 
and general recognition than he has received. His longer 
narrative poems and his dramatic pieces are not without 
merit, but his best work is undoubtedly in the purer lyric 
and descriptive types. Especially praiseworthy are his 
sonnets, of which he wrote considerably more than one 
hundred. Maurice Thompson said: "As a sonneteer, 
Hayne was strong, ranking well with the best in America"; 
and again, "I can pick twenty of Hayne's sonnets to equal 
almost any in the language"; and Professor Painter adds, 




From a photograph. Courtesy of the poet's son, 
Wiltiatn Hamilton Hayne 



PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE 



18 



274 History oj American Literature 

"It is hardly too much to claim that Hayne is the prince of 
American sonneteers." 

His life a poem. Paul Hamilton Hayne lived as he 
wrote — simply, purely, bravely. The latter part of his 
life was marked by struggle and heartache, privation and 
disease; yet he kept up his courage and maintained a calm, 
sweet temper to the end, making of his own life, perhaps, 
a more beautiful poem than any he ever penned.^ , 

Sidney Lanier. In one of his earlier poems, called "Life 
and Song," Sidney Lanier (1842-1881) says that none of 
the poets has ever yet so perfectly united the ideal of his 
minstrelsy with the reality of his daily life as to cause the 
world in wonder to exclaim: 

"His song was only living aloud. 
His work, a singing with his hand!" 

But so nearly did Lanier himself come to a realization of his 
ideal of "a perfect life in perfect labor writ," that the ever- 
growing circle of his admirers is ready to place him among 
that very small number of the gifted sons of genius who 
have nobly conceived and nobly striven toward the ideal. 
Outwardly his life was a hard one. The story of his struggle 
against poverty, disease, and adversity often has been told, 
but not too often, for it is as inspiring as it is pathetic. It 
is the old, old story of genius making its way in spite of all' 
obstructions. 

Lanier's early life: his musical gifts. Sidney Lanier was 
born at Macon, Georgia, Febiniary 3, 1842. His father, 
Robert S. Lanier, was a fairly successful lawyer who was 
able to keep his family in that moderate degree of comfort 
which seems conducive to the highest happiness in home 
life. The house in which Sidney was born was the home 
at that time of his grandfather. Sterling Lanier, and when 



^Perhaps the best essays on Hayne are those by Margaret Junkin Preston 
in the latest edition of his poems [1882] and by William Hamilton Hayne 
in LippincoWs Magazine for December, 1892. 



Artistic or Creative Period: Southern Group 275 




SIDNEY LAXIER 



this first grandson was a few months old, his parents moved 
to Griffin, Georgia, returning to Macon a year or two later. 
Here their parlor was later the scene of many a hospitable 
gathering of friends and neighbors in impromptu family 
musical entertainments. The two boys, as well as the 
mother, were talented in music, and each contributed to 



276 History of American Literature 

the home concerts. The Laniers had in previous generations 
been distinguished for their attainments in various kinds 
of artistic expression, particularly in painting and in music. 
Sidney early showed his remarkable musical talent, becoming 
a performer on almost all kinds of instruments at an early 
age, learning with that ease and rapidity which come only 
from natural genius. He was so fascinated by the music 
of the violin that he would sometimes fall into deep reveries 
or trances as he played. His father, fearing the power of 
the instrument over the boy and not wishing him to become 
a professional musician, forbade him to practice on it; 
and Sidney turned to the instrument which after the violin 
most appealed to him, the flute. On this he produced 
marvelous effects, not only fascinating his schoolmates at 
Oglethorpe College and his fellow soldiers during the Civil 
War, but later earning as a professional the distinction of 
being the greatest flute-player in the world. The sweetness, 
mellowness, and passionate appeal of the tones of his flute 
are said to have held all hearers spellbound. He could 
imitate bird notes with ease, and was also able to obtain 
in his extemporized variations and embellishments tones 
suggestive of those of the violin. He was not merely a 
virtuoso, but a composer as well. 

His call to be a writer. But later on we find the conviction, 
taking possession of Lanier that he must be a poet. He 
writes to his father, "Gradually I find that my whole soul 
is merging itself into this business of writing." He had 
begun while at college to test his powers as a writer. He 
was ambitious to prepare himself by study in Germany for 
a college professorship, but the war came on, and like many 
another talented young Southerner, he threw himself with 
great enthusiasm into the cause of the Confederacy. He 
entered the army as a private, and rather than accept 
promotion which would separate him from his brother 
Clifford, he remained such. Near the close of the war 



Artistic or Creative Period: Southern Group 277 

when both he and CHfford were put in charge of blockade- 
running vessels, Sidney was captured and confined for five 
months in the Federal prison at Point Lookout. During 
the war, Lanier did not neglect his mental development. 
He read all the books he could lay hands on, studied German, 
translated a few poems from foreign languages, and played 
on his beloved flute whenever he had an opportunity to do 
so. He began work on a novel in which he made use of 
some of the experiences and aspirations of this period. 
This immature production was published shortly after the 
war, under the title of Tiger Lilies. 

Teaching and writing poetry. Returning home from prison 
just in time to see his mother before her death, he sadly 
set to work to make a living for himself and thus to help 
retrieve the broken fortunes of the family. He began teach- 
ing as a tutor on a plantation near Macon, and then he 
became a clerk in the old Exchange Hotel at Montgomery, 
Alabama. In 1867 he accepted the principalship of the 
village school at Prattville, Alabama, and it was while he 
was occupying this position that he married Miss Mary Day, 
of Macon, Georgia. During the first year of his married 
life Lanier suffered his first prostration from hemorrhage of 
the lungs. To this distressful period belong several Recon- 
struction outcries, of which only two, "Tyranny" and "The 
Raven Days," were included in the 1884 edition of his 
poems, but several others, notably "Our Hills," are included 
in the latest edition of his complete Poems (igi6). Some 
years later the rich emotions incident to his love, courtship, 
and marriage blossomed forth into many beautiful tributes 
to the object of his lifelong devotion. No more exquisite 
love poem, no finer tribute to a wife, is to be found in our 
literature than "My Springs." 

Lanier as a lawyer: his letters. After his marriage, Lanier 
decided to become a lawyer in order to be able to provide 
more adequately for his family. He went to Macon to study 



278 History of American Literature 

with the finn of which his father was a member, and he was 
shortly afterwards admitted to the bar. Though his success 
was remarkable and immediate, he did not practice long, for 
the demands of the legal profession were destructive of his 
now feeble vitality, a public address being likely to induce 
hemorrhage, and prolonged desk work a steady lowering of 
his strength at all points. And yet he felt chained by moral 
obligation to consent to his father's urgent plea that be 
continue in his law work for the sake of his family's support. 
At last, after five years of painful sacrifice, disease freed 
him to devote himself to his beloved arts, music and poetry. 
He said he had in his heart a thousand songs that were 
oppressing him because they remained unsung. Relin- 
quishing his law practice, he sought health by rest and travel. 
He spent some time in San Antonio, Texas, in the winter of 
1872, and here he made the first notable public display of 
his remarkable talent for flute playing. He wrote some for 
publication, but the best products of this period are his 
tender love letters to his wife. In fact, Lanier was one of 
the finest letter writers of the nineteenth century. The 
charm and fullness with which the poet expressed himself 
by means of the delicate art of personal correspondence have 
rarely been equaled and ne\'er surpassed in American 
literature. 

Lanier as a musician. The next year he decide to go to 
the North or East where he could find encouragement and 
opportunity to devote himself to the twin arts of music and 
poetry. He was engaged as first flute in the Peabody Sym- 
phony Concerts in Baltimore. His ability as a musician 
was soon recognized. He was not merely a virtuoso, but a 
composer and master of the science of music. And so with 
flute and pen as the means by which he earned a scanty 
livelihood, he spent the remaining nine years of his life in 
the musical and scholarly atmosphere of Baltimore and other 
cities. He soon made warm friends of many notable persons, 



28o History of American Literature 

such as Bayard Taylor, Charlotte Cushman, Gibson Peacock 
of Philadelphia, Leopold Damrosch, President Gilman, and 
others. Again he was under the necessity of being separated 
from his family; but while these enforced periods of separa- 
tion were extremely painful to the poet and his wife, the 
general public may count them fortunate, in that they were 
the occasion for some of the most beautiful of his letters on 
music and kindred arts. 

His poems of iSyd-jj. The later years of the poet's life, 
while consciously devoted to art, were a struggle against 
poverty and disease. In the summer of 1876-187 7 his 
health became so greatly impaired that his physicians and 
friends prevailed on him to go to Tampa, Florida, to recu- 
perate. In the leisure of this visit Lanier produced many 
notable poems, among them being "Tampa Robins," 
"Beethoven," "The Waving of the Com," "The Song of 
the Chattahoochee," "The Stirrup Cup," "An Evening 
Song," "The Mocking-Bird." On his return to Baltimore 
in the spring, he tried to find some employment to supple- 
ment the meager income from his position in the Peabody 
Symphony Orchestra. But all his efforts and those of his 
friends seemed of no avail. It was at this time that what 
Professor Mims calls "perhaps the most pathetic words in 
all his letters" were written by the poet: "Altogether, it 
seems as if there wasn't any place for me in the world, and 
if it were not for May [his wife] I should certainly quit it> 
in mortification at being so useless." 

Lanier's lectures on literature. Finally a friend hit upon 
the idea of organizing a private class for a series of lectures 
on English poetry. Lanier had been taking every advantage 
of the excellent libraries ard opportunities for culture in 
Baltimore, and he had developed rapidly under the inspira- 
tion of the literary and artistic life of that city. He was 
reading deeply into the Old and Middle English and the 
Elizabethan writers. . His sympathetic intelrpretations 



Artistic or Creative Period: Southern Group 281 

attracted a goodly number of students to his first class, and 
the success of these private lectures soon gave him an oppor- 
tunity to present the results of his investigations in a regular 
series of lectures in Johns Hopkins University. It was in 
1879 that President Oilman appointed him to a lectureship 
in English literature. Many years later Lanier's son, Henry 
Wysham Lanier, collected the lectures and published them 
in two large volumes under the title of Shakespere and His 
Forerunners (1902). 

Lanier's prose works. During all this time Lanier was 
turning out many excellent works, both creative and edi- 
torial. His Boy's Froissart, Boy's King Arthur, Boy's Percy, 
Boy's Mabinogion are still standard juvenile books. He 
was gradually working out in concrete examples of poetic 
composition his theories of the interrelationship of music 
and poetry. He published two critical volumes, The 
Science of English Verse and The English Novel and its 
Development. In the first he set forth the interrelations of 
music and poetry, and in the second he proclaimed the 
novel as the most characteristic form of modern literary 
art. 

His best poefns. Lanier's theory of the close relationship 
between music and poetry was well nigh justified .in such of 
his own poems as "The Symphony," "The Ballad of Trees 
and the Master," "Psalm of the West," "The vSong of the 
Chattahoochee," "The Marshes of Glynn," and "Sunrise." 
"Sunrise" and "The Marshes of Glynn," two of the four 
completed "hymns of the marshes," a distinctly original 
series of poems projected by Lanier on the beautiful salt 
sea-marshes along the coast of Georgia, are usually designated 
as Lanier's supreme attainment in lyrical poetry. The first 
of these contains some magnificent lines and some wonderful 
melody, but it is perhaps written in a too tense and ecstatic 
mood to be thoroughly artistic. Of "The Marshes of 
Glynn" Professor Edwin Mims says that one could single 



282 History of American Literature 

it out "with assurance that there is something so individual 
and original about it, and that, at the same time, there is 
such a roll and range of verse in it, that it will surely live 
not only in American poetry but in English." 

Lanier's last days. In 1880 Lanier faithfully filled his 
engagements at the university, but it is said that his hearers 
were in constant dread lest each hour should be his last. 
It was only by the conquering power of his will that he kept 
himself alive at all. He rode to the hall in a closed carriage, 
and sat during the hour, being unable to stand to deliver 
his lectures. In 1881 he sought relief in the mountains near 
Asheville in North Carolina. His father and his brother 
CliiTord were with him for several weeks, but only his wife 
was there when the end came. Mr. William Hayes Ward, 
in his memorial essay, which is attached as introduction 
to the volume of Lanier's Poems, quotes Mrs. Lanier's own 
words: "We are left alone with one another. On the last 
night of the summer comes a change. His love and immortal 
will hold off the destroyer of our summer yet one more week, 
until the forenoon of September 7th, and then falls the frost, 
and that unfaltering will renders its supreme submission to 
the adored will of God." He was buried in Greenmount 
Cemetery in Baltimore, the beloved city of his adoption.^ 

MINOR SOUTHERN POETS 

The ante-bellum minor poets. Poe is the only Southerner, 
doubtless, who would receive unanimous suffrage as a major 
American poet. But in the ante-bellum period, beginning 
with Francis Scott Key (i 780-1 843), of Maryland, whose 
fame rests upon the fact that he wrote during the War of 
181 2 what has since become our national anthem, "The 
Star-Spangled Banner," the South produced a large number 

1 The most satisfactory life of Lanier is that by Edwin Mims. Other 
noteworthy studies are those by Professor Morgan Callaway, Jr., m his 
Select Poems of Sidney Lanier, and by Henry Nelson Snyder in his The 
Spiriliial Message cf Lanier. 



Artistic or Creative Period: Southern Gronj^ 283 

of minor poets. Some of them have thrown off single 
lyrics of admirable grace and sweetness, others have poured 
forth volumes of mediocre poetry cf merely local interest 
or sectional pride, and still others have produced a consider- 
able amount of poetry worthy of general national attention. 
Among the single-poem class of ante-bellum Southern poets 
may be named Richard Henry Wilde (i 789-1847), of Georgia, 
whose beautiful lyric, "My Life is Like the Summer Rose," 
is included in practically every American anthology ; William 
Gilmore Simms (1806-18 70), of South Carolina, better 
known as a novelist, but remembered also for a few of his 
many poems, and particularly for his poetical characteriza- 
tion of General Francis Marion in "The Swamp Fox"; 
Alexander Beaufort Meek (18 14-1865), born in South 
CaroHna but associated almost entirely with Alabama, 
author of the stirring patriotic lyric "Land of the South" 
and two excellent bird lyrics, "The Mocking-Bird" and 
"Song of the Blue Bird"; Theodore O'Hara (1820-1867), 
of Kentucky, whose "The Bivouac of the Dead" is recog- 
nized among the noblest of our elegies or dirges; Edward 
Coate Pinkney (1802-1828), of Maryland, whose lyric, 
"A Health," called forth the highest praise from Poe and is 
still greatly admired by all lovers of musical verse; Philip 
Pendleton Cooke (1816-1850), brother of the novehst, John 
Esten Cooke, of Virginia, whose "Florence Vane" is but 
one of several excellent lyrics in his volume called Froissart 
Ballads and Other Poems (1847). 

Civil War poets. Besides Henry Timrod, who is treated 
elsewhere in this volume, the war poets of the South include 
the following: Albert Pike (i 809-1 891), bom in Boston 
but for fifty years of his life identified with the South, 
particularly Arkansas, wrote a great deal of poetry, most 
of it of an imitative classic quality. His "Ode to the 
Mocking-Bird," his fiery war song "Dixie" (not the crude 
dialect words usually sung to the well-known air), and his 



284 History of American Literature 

melancholy lyric called "Every Year" may be read as 
examples of his best lyric productions. Dr. Francis Orray 
Ticknor (1822-1874) is remembered chiefly as the author 
of the stirring lyric of heroism, "Little Giifen," which has 
been named among the half dozen best short poems in 
American literature. The natural and spontaneous poetry 
of this good physician, whose home near Columbus, Georgia, 
was known as a refuge for the sick and wounded Confederate 
soldiers during the Civil War, should have long ago received 
fuller recognition from our literary historians. James 
Ryder Randall (183 9-1 908), of Maryland, sang himself 
into fame with the fervent war lyric, "Maryland, My 
Maryland!" which has been called "The Marseillaise of the 
Confederacy." Margaret Junkin Preston (1820-1897) was 
bom in Pennsylvania, but married Colonel J. T. L. Preston, 
of the Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia, 
and devoted her life and all her talents to the Southern 
cause. She wrote a large amount of narrative and lyric 
verse. Her best work was a number of lyrics commemo- 
rative of Southern war heroes, such as "Gone Forward" 
and "The Shade of the Trees," commemorating the deaths 
of Generals Lee and Jackson respectively. John Reuben 
Thompson (1823-1873), of Virginia, who was for fourteen 
years editor of the most important literary journal of the 
South, The Southern Literary Messenger, is chiefly remem- 
bered for his war lyrics, among which may be singled out 
"Music in Camp," "Ashby," and "The Death of Stuart." 
Abram Joseph Ryan (i 839-1886), better known from his 
priestly office as Father Ryan, is the best beloved of all 
the Southern Civil War poets. He was bom in Virginia, 
but lived in several Southern states, his longest residence 
in any one place being at Mobile, Alabama, in connection 
with the noted old Catholic church of St. Mary's in 
that city. His best known lyrics are "The Sword of Lee," 
"The Mystic," and "The Conquered Banner." He also 



Artistic or Creative Period: Southern Group 285 





^^^^B' 


\ 
■^ i^ 


"'1 

i 

i 

i 










^^^^H 


^^^^^^ 




i 


it.^ 






i.. .i 



ABRAM JOSEPH RYAN 



From a photograph 



wrote a long narrative poem in blank verse, which, though 
not of the highest poetical merit, has a pathetic personal 
interest. It is called "Their Story Runneth Thus," being 



2 86 History of American Literature 

a story of self-renunciation and sacrifice, full of Roman 
Catholic coloring, and supposed to be based on the poet's 
own personal experience in renouncing his early love for a 
beautiful girl, who afterwards, upon his advice, became a 
nun. Father Ryan's verse is the simple and natural out- 
pouring of a pure and loyal soul, and it touches the hearts 
of many readers who would not be moved by work of a 
more finished literary art. 

Post-bellum poets. Sidney Lanier and Paid Hamilton 
Hayne are treated elsewhere at more length. The minor 
Southern singers that have appeared since the Civil War 
are quite too numerous to be spoken of in detail. Irwin 
Russell and Madison Cawein, however, are distinctive 
enough to demand special mention; a few of the other later 
poets may be treated more briefly. 

Irwin Russell. The story of Irwin Russell (1853-1879), 
"the boy poet of Mississippi," is a pathetic one and may 
easily be used to "point a moral or adorn a tale. " He was 
bom in Port Gibson, Mississippi, where his father was a 
practicing physician. At the age of three months the child 
suftered a severe attack of yellow fever, and it is thought that 
his frail constitution in after life was the result of this early 
infection. He was sent to the schools of St. Louis, Missouri, 
after which he returned to Mississippi and prepared himself 
for the bar, being admitted to the practice by a special act 
of the Mississippi legislature two years before he reached 
his majority. His mental acuteness was remarkable. He 
was also talented in music, being able to play on several 
instruments with ease. His fondness for the banjo led, by 
a happy accident, to his composition or improvization of 
negro songs similar to those he heard the servants singing 
around his father's home. Many of these humorous negro 
songs were afterward published in Scribner's Monthly, 
beginning in 1876. This was an entirely new type of writ- 
ing, and it at once attracted other writers into the same field. 



Artistic or Creative Period: Southern Group 287 

Joel Chandler Harris and Thomas Nelson Page have both 
acknowledged their indebtedness to and their appreciation 




Courtesy of Professor A. A. Keen 
IRWIN RUSSELL 

of the art of Russell 'in negi^o dialect. The young writer 
was attracted to New York City to continue his literary 
activities. In the meantime he had lost his father, and he 
was now practically alone and adrift in the world. Yielding 
to his desire for the use of drugs and intoxicants, he soon 
broke down in health. He fell into a serious illness and was 
impelled by remorse to leave New York, where his new 



288 History of American Literature 

friends were charitably taking care of him. He worked his 
w^ay down to New Orleans on a coast steamer, and tried to 
recover his health by abstinence and thus reinstate himself 
in the profession of journalism, becoming for a time a 
reporter on the New Orleans Picayune. But Fate was against 
him; he died, leaving his promise of greater work unfulfilled. 

RusselVs dialect poems. The whole output of Russell's 
genius makes up but a thin volume of verse. His most 
notable single production in negro dialect is the operetta 
called " Christinas Night in the Quarters. " "In this produc- 
tion," says Joel Chandler Harris in his introduction of the 
volume published after Russell's death, "Russell combines 
the features of a character study with a series of bold and 
striking plantation pictures that have never been surpassed. 
In this remarkable group, — if I may so term it, — the old 
life before the war is reproduced with a fidelity that is 
marvelous." "The Song of the Banjo," a lyric in this 
operetta, is perhaps the best known of Russell's poems, 
but "Nebuchadnezzar," " Mahsr John," "Business in 
Mississippi," and many others are equally amusing. 

Madison Cawein. Madison Julius Cawein (1865-19 14), 
of Kentucky, the most prolific and all in all the most sensu- 
ously lyrical of recent American poets, should be more 
widely known than he is at present. He published during 
his life an enormous amount of verse, issuing some twenty- 
odd original books of poetry besides a volume of selected 
poems. He found his subjects largely in his minute observa- 
tions of Nature and in his romantic treatment of the outdoor 
world. Naturally in the large number of poems which he 
published there will be found many trivial themes and some 
artificial conceits. But taken at his best, Cawein deserves 
the high praise which William Dean Howells and other 
critics have accorded him. He has been called "the Keats 
of Kentucky," and his enthusiastic delight in nature and 
his love for foreign and native myths give point to the 



Artistic or Creative Period: Southern Group 289 

comparison. Cawein wrote too much, however, and his 
lack of restraint and of severe self-criticism has doubtless 
injured his fame. Nevertheless it is believed that he will 
be remembered as one of the most truly gifted of American 
nature lyrists. 

Other lyrists. John Bannister Tabb (1S45-1909), of 
Virginia, was just old enough to enter the Confederate Army 
toward the close of the Civil War. He was associated with 
Sidney Lanier as a prisoner of war, and on several occasions 
he voiced his appreciation of that poet's magnetic and 
chivalrous personality. After the war he became a Roman 
Catholic priest and devoted himself largely to teaching in 
Catholic schools. He wrote many brief almost epigram- 
matic lyrics, all of them being decidedly pleasing and satis- 
fying to the ear as well as stimulating and suggestive to the 
imagination. Samuel Minturn Peck (1854-), of Alabama, 
is one of the cleverest of all our writers of light society verse. 
His lyrics have a fascinating lilt and a charming melody, and 
are at the same time interfused with a spirit of cavalier 
gallantry, quiet humor, and an amusing touch of playful 
satire and badinage. His best known lyrics, perhaps, are 
"The Grapevine Swing," "Aunt Jemima's Quilt," "Grand- 
mother's Turkey-tail Fan," "Doctor Bessie Brown," and 
"The Southern Girl." Robert Burns Wilson (1850-1916) 
and Cale Young Rice (187 2-), both of Kentucky, have 
written excellent lyric verse. The last-named poet is just 
now in the prime of his life, and he has a decidedly promising 
future before him, if we may judge by the quality of his 
already published poems and plays. Judge Walter Malone 
(1866-1915), although born in Mississippi, has made his home 
almost entirely in Memphis, Tennessee, and is recognized 
as a prominent poet of his adopted state. His best known, 
though not his most artistic, poem is called "Oppor- 
tunity." Frank Lebby Stanton (185 7-), born in South 
Carolina, but usually thought of as a Georgian on account 

19 



290 History of American Literature 

of his long connection with The Atlanta Constitution, is a 
newspaper poet of wide popularity., In his daily coliimn 
of verse and humorous skits to the Constitution, he has 
inevitably turned out many mere space fillers; but there 
is a distinct singing quality to his verse; and when the 
best of his songs shall have been selected from the vast 
amount he has produced, there will be a considerable volume 
of worthy poems of his to transmit to posterity. Stark 
Young (1881-), of Mississippi, now Professor of English 
literature at Amherst College, Massachusetts, has published 
some finely modulated lyric verse in his volume, The 
Blind Man at the Window and Other Poems (1906). He 
has also written a poetic drama, "Guenevere," (1906), 
and several meritorious one-act plays in a voltune called 
Mardretta and Other Plays (191 1). William Alexander 
Percy (188 5-), is an equally promising Mississippi poet. 
His Sappho in Leukas (191 5) shows both taste and power, 
and we may confidently expect still better work from his 
pen. Conrad Potter Aiken (1889-), of Savannah, Georgia, 
is another young poet of talent. His three volmnes — 
Earth Triumphant (19 14), Nocturne of Remembered Spring 
(191 7), and The Charnel Rose (19 18) — contain both 
narrative and lyric verse of surprisingly good quality. 

SOUTHERN WRITERS OF FICTION 

Introductory statement. Aside from Poe, whose impor- 
tant work in the American short story is treated else- 
where, the writers of fiction in the South prior to the 
Civil War were few in number and of little importance. 
John Pendleton Kennedy, William Gilmore Simms, and 
John Esten Cooke are the only ante-bellum Southerners 
who deserve attention in this field of literature. Since the 
Civil War, however, a large number of novelists and local- 
color short-story writers have sprung up in the South. The 
following list of names will indicate the importance of the 



Artistic or Creative Period: Southern Group 291 

Southern group among our popular writers of fiction during 
the last half century: Richard Malcolm Johnston, F. Hop- 
kinson Smith, Joel Chandler Harris, George Washington 
Cable, James Lane Allen, Charles Egbert Craddock, 
Thomas Nelson Page, John Fox, Jr., Grace King, Ruth 
McEnery Stuart, Mary Johnston, Ellen Glasgow, Henry 
Sydnor Harrison and O. Henry. 

John Pendleton Kennedy. John Pendleton Kennedy 
(i 795-1870) was born in Baltimore, and educated there for 
the bar. He later became Secretary of the Navy under 
President Fillmore. Literature was to him, as to all South- 
em gentlemen of his time, a mere side issue or pastime. 
His serious work was in law and politics, but he found time 
to do a great deal of literar}^ reading and to write three 
volumes of fiction. His first book, Swallow Barn; or, A 
Sojourn in the Old Dominion (1832), is a series of sketches 
held together by a slight plot element. It succeeds admi- 
rably in its attempt to present accurately and vividly the 
early social life of Virginia. Kennedy's most pretentious 
novel is Horse-shoe Robinson; or, A Tale of the Tory Ascend- 
ency (1835). The setting is in the South Carolina of the 
Revolution, and the stirring scenes of those early times are 
portrayed with wonderful naturalness and realism if not 
with perfect historic accuracy. The hero, an unlettered but 
valorous and resourceful patriot, is one of the really notable 
character creations in our early fiction. The scene of 
another historical romance, Roh of the Bowl (1838), is laid 
in colonial Maryland during the days of the proprietary 
government, and the book is said to present a very trust- 
worthy portrait of colonial life. Kennedy was one of. the 
first men to give generous encouragement to Poe, and he had 
much intercourse and correspondence with other distin- 
guished literary men both in America and in England. His 
connection with Thackeray is particularly interesting; it is 
claimed that Kennedy wrote or at least provided the material 



292 History of American Literature 

for the fourth chapter of Thackeray's novel, The Virginians. 
Had he devoted himself more to literature and less to law 
and politics, Kennedy would doubtless have attained a much 
higher rank among American writers than he is now accorded. 
William Gilmore Simms. Next to Poe, William Gilmore 
Simms (1S06-1870) was the most potent literary influence 
in Southern literature in the period immediately preceding 
the Civil War. He was born in Charleston, South Carolina, 
in 1806 and was left an orphan at an early age. He managed 
to prepare himself for the practice of law, but he was soon 
attracted into authorship, beginning as a newspaper editor. 
He gathered around him at Charleston a coterie of young 
writers and acted as a kind of host or literary adviser to 
them. Among the most prominent of these were the poets 
Paul Hamilton Hayne and Henry Timrod. About 1833 he 
began the publication of his long series of romances, Guy 
Rivers: a Tale of Georgia (1834) being his first successful long 
story. This was quickly followed by The Yemassee: a 
Romance of South Carolina (1835) and The Partisan: a Tale 
of the Revolution (183 5) , his two best stories. It is impossible 
here to follow Simms through his long and active literary 
and political career. He was a loyal and enthusiastic 
Southerner, and espoused with almost partisan zeal prac- 
tically every important social and political movement in 
which his section became involved. He was a prodigious 
composer, writing and publishing nearly a hundred volumes 
in the various kinds or types of literary composition. The 
plain fact is that he wrote too much and too rapidly to give 
his work that polish and finish of style which is essential to 
literary masterpieces. He had a marvelously fertile imagi- 
nation and could turn out an enormous amount of exciting 
romance within the space of a few hours. He rarely cor- 
rected or revised his first drafts, and hence his works are 
full of the usual errors due to haste and over-confidence. 
But under the heat of his fertile imagination he could write 



Artistic or Creative Period: Southern Group 293 

interesting, if somewhat melodramatic, narratives; and 
his conception of character, his descriptions of nature, and 
his presentations of intense dramatic situations show evi- 
dences of strong native power and insight. He has been 
called the "Cooper of the South," and his Indian stories, 
his tales of adventure, and his historical romances may be 
compared not altogether unfavorably with Cooper's work 
in these fields. 

John Esten Cooke. John Esten Cooke (1830-1886), "a 
Virginian of Virginians," won his reputation as a romancer 
before the Civil War, but he may also be classed among the 
post-bellum writers, for he wrote many popular stories 
based on his experiences and observations of that memorable 
struggle. He did not take a college education as did his 
elder brother, the poet Philip Pendleton Cooke, but decided 
to prepare immediately for the practice of law in his father's 
office. However, he devoted much of his time to general 
reading and literary work. In 1854 he published perhaps 
his most important book, The Virginia Comedians, a novel 
dealing with life in the Old Dominion just prior to the 
Revolution. When the Civil War opened, he enlisted as a 
private in the Confederate Army and was soon promoted 
to the rank of major. He served as a staff officer with 
Generals Stuart and Pendleton, and thus was enabled to 
come into personal contact with a number of the leading 
Confederate generals. He kept full notes of his experiences, 
and later he used this material in writing his stirring romances 
of the Civil War. Even during the war Cooke was con- 
stantly writing. He published in 1863, less than a year 
after Jackson's death, a biography of the great Southern 
general. Surry of Eagle's Nest appeared in 1866 and won 
immediate popularity in the South, and is still frequently 
read by Southern youths. Then followed a long series of 
tales full of dramatic adventure and highly colored war 
romance, such as Mohun, Hilt to Hilt, Wearing the Gray, 



294 History of American Literature 

Hammer and Rapier (Grant and Lee). These later works, 
though highly entertaining to young Southern readers, 
cannot be classed as first-rate literature. The straining 
after exciting incident and melodramatic situation and the 
lack of proper perspective and massing are the chief faults of 
this kind of fiction. 

Wide geographical distribution of later fiction writers. 
The wide geographical distribution of the later Southern 
writers of fiction indicates the relative importance of the 
element of localism in their work. Nearly every state and 
nearly every type of life in the South has had its exploiter 
in fiction. Beginning with the Atlantic coast and moving 
westward, we may take a rapid glance over the field and 
at the same time preserve something of a chronological 
sequence. 

F. Hopkinson Smith. Francis Hopkinson Smith (1838- 
19 1 5) was born in Maryland, but he moved to New York to 
find work and later became quite a traveler, and his work 
deals almost as largely with New England as with the South. 
He seems, too, to belong to the very latest school of writers 
of fiction, for he did not begin to write stories until he was 
•past fifty. He spent a busy life as a constructive engineer, 
a painter, a lecturer, and a writer. In Colonel Carter oj 
Carter sville (1891) he succeeded in drawing a charming por- 
trait of an old-time Southern gentleman. So delicately 
humorous, vividly realistic, and thoroughly human is this 
idealized portrait that one is almost willing to place Colonel 
Carter among the few great character creations in our 
literature. Smith's later novels, which may be classed as 
realistic romances, are written in an optimistic and pleasing 
style. Caleb West, Master Diver (1898), which draws upon 
Smith's experience as a constructive engineer in marine 
work; The Fortunes of Oliver Horn (1902), Kennedy Square 
(191 1), and Felix O'Day (19 15) may be mentioned as the 
best of his numerous other novels. Smith was also a 



Artistic or Creative Period: Southern Group 295 

painter of considerable talent, and a number of his later 
books are illustrated with his own drawings and sketches. 

Thomas Nelson Page. In recent years Virginia has been 
perhaps the most fertile Southern state in the production of 
story writers. Thomas Nelson Page (1853-) began about 
1884 to write negro dialect stories for the magazines, " Marse 
Chan" being the first of these to attract general attention. 
In Ole Virginia (1887) is the title of his first volume. It is 
composed almost entirely of negro dialect stories, and it is 
the consensus of opinion that Page has never surpassed, if 
indeed he has ever again quite reached, the high mark of 
artistic excellence which he set in these faithful portraits 
of the old-time Southern master and slave. Besides "Marse 
Chan," prime favorites in this first volimie are "Meh Lady," 
"Ole 'Stracted," and "Unc 'Edinburg's Drowndin." "Two 
Little Confederates" and "The Burial of the Guns" (1894) 
are two good Civil War short stories accredited to Page. 
Elsket (1892) is a romantic story, the scene of which is laid 
in Norway. In 1898 Page published his best long novel. 
Red Rock, A Chronicle of Reconstruction. It is a gripping 
story of those trying days in the South when the Northern 
carpet-bagger was imposing himself upon the Southern white 
people and inciting the negroes to open opposition to their 
former masters. His later novels are somewhat disappoint- 
ing, but the two volumes just mentioned are classics of their 
kind and will doubtless long retain a place of high distinction 
in the list of the best American fiction. 

Other Virginia story writers. Three Virginia women have 
attracted a wide circle of delighted readers; namely, Molly 
Elliot Seawell (1860-19 16), author of Throckmorton (1890), 
The Sprightly Romance of Mar sac (1896), and many other 
novels; Mary Johnston (1870-), for a number of years a 
resident of Alabama, author of Prisoners of Hope (1898), 
To Have and To Hold (1899), Audrey (1902), tales of Colonial 
Virginia; Lewis Rand (1908), a tale of Virginia in the early 



296 History of American Literature 

nineteenth century; and The Long Roll (191 1) and Cease 
Firing (191 2), Civil War stories introducing Generals Jackson 
and Lee respectively, besides several other romances; and 
Ellen Glasgow (1874-) author of The Voice of the People 
(1900), The Battle Ground (1902), The Deliverance (1904), 
and other novels. In the past ten years Henry Sydnor 
Harrison of Richmond has won popularity by his interesting 
and carefully written novels, Queed (191 1), V. V.'s Eyes 
(1913), and Angela's Business (1916). He seems to be the 
most promising of the younger Southern novelists. 

Frances Hodgson Burnett. Frances Hodgson Burnett 
(1849-), though born in Manchester, England, came to 
America when- she was sixteen, lived for some time in 
Tennessee and other Southern states, and finally in Wash- 
ington, D. C., so that she may be classed as a Southern 
writer. Her first successful novel. That Lass 0' Lowries 
(1877), deals with the working classes in England, but she 
wrote many stories of American life, such as Through One 
Administration (1883), dealing with the social and political 
life in Washington City, and In Connection with the De Wil- 
loughby Claim (1899), the scene of which is laid in Tennessee 
during the Civil War. The best known of all Mrs. Burnett's 
stories, however, is the juvenile classic, Little Lord Fauntleroy 
(1886). The long golden curls, the velvet knickerbocker 
suit, and the broad white collar of the seven-year-old boy 
hero became a fad and furnished a model for many a fond 
American mother. The tender moral tone of the book has 
also helped to give it vogue among American readers. 

Richard Malcolm Johnston. Among Georgia writers of 
fiction Richard Malcolm Johnston (182 2-1 898), for some 
years prior to the Civil War a professor of English in the 
University of Georgia and afterward principal of boarding 
schools for boys in Sparta, Georgia, and in Baltimore, Mary- 
land, wrote a series of character sketches dealing in a realistic 
and humorous fashion with Georgia rural types. These 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 297 

were collected and published in several volumes, the best 
known being Dtikeshorough Tales; or Old Times in Middle 
Georgia (187 1). The realism and accuracy of his portrayals 
of life and character make his works a trustworthy source 
for the study of social conditions in the South during the 
last half of the nineteenth century, but the lack of plot 
interest and the absence of the glamour of romance have 
led to an almost total neglect of these books by modern 
readers. Another early Georgia writer, Judge Augustus 
Baldwin Longstreet (1790-1870), wrote a similar series of 
excellent realistic sketches and published them in a volume 
called Georgia Scenes (1835). The large infusion of genuine 
humor in his work has kept it alive even to the present day. 
Joel Chandler Harris. vSo well has Joel Chandler Harris 
(1848- 1 908) succeeded in exploiting the interesting field of 
negro folklore which by chance he stiunbled into, and also 
so admirably has he portrayed other phases of life in the 
South, that some critics are ready to accord him a place 
among the major American writers of recent years. By his 
simple, unassuming, and yet thoroughly artistic style, by 
his keen observations of man and nature, by the richness 
and sweetness of his humor and pathos, by the constantly 
sane and healthful attitude toward life which he maintained, 
and also by his powerful and apparently almost unconscious 
character creation, Harris seems destined to take his place 
among the distinctively original writers that America has 
so far produced. His realm was a restricted one, it is true, 
for he did not succeed with the full-scope novel; but he 
has worked his own particular vein with such painstaking 
and loving artistry that he has succeeded in adding a new 
domain to our literature, that of the folktale retold in artistic 
setting, and he has certainly added at least one immortal 
portrait to our gallery of notable characters in fiction, — 
namely, "Uncle Remus." 

His preparation. Harris was born near Eatonton, a village 



298 History of American Literature 

in Putnam County, Georgia. He obtained an elementary 
education at rural schools and at an Eatonton academy. 
When he was fourteen, Harris became an assistant printer 
on a journal called The Countryman, edited by J. A. Turner 
on his plantation in Putnam County. Here the boy may be 
said to have completed his education by setting type, running 
the press, and doing the general work around the printing 
office. Mr. Turner encouraged him, allowed him free use 
of his own library, and eventually accepted contributions 
from him. But the best part of young Harris's education 
was gleaned from sources outside of books. He studied 
closely the life and nature about him, he listened to the old 
negroes tell their fascinating animal tales, and he absorbed 
the language, superstitions, and habits of his colored as 
well as his white neighbors. In a book called On the Planta- 
tion, written many years later and dedicated to Mr. Turner, 
Harris has woven his personal experiences into a wonderfully 
delightful picture of this old-time life on a Georgia planta- 
tion. Then came Sherman's army marching through 
Georgia, and the old life was a closed book. Harris later 
became a newspaper man, working on several papers and 
finally settling down to a long journalistic career on The 
Atlanta Constitution. He lived a quiet and retired life at 
his home called "The Wren's Nest" in the suburbs of 
Atlanta, rarely appearing in any public capacity other than 
that of his daily editorial contributions to the Constitution. 
His Uncle Remus stories. It was while he was serving 
as a reporter on the Constitution that his opportunity came. 
One of the regular contributors who had been writing negro 
dialect sketches for the paper retired, and Harris was asked 
to supply the deficiency thus created. He began under the 
nom-de-plume of "Uncle Remus" to put upon paper the 
stories he had heard in his youth on the plantation. These 
stories were later collected in the volimie called Uncle 
Remus: His Songs and His Sayings (188 1). Three other 




From a photograph by Francis Benjamin Johnston 
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS 



300 History of American Literature 

volumes in the same vein, Nights with Uncle Remus (1883), 
Uncle Remus and His Friends (1892), and Told by Uncle 
Remus (1905), have been almost equally popular; and as a 
by-product of the interesting animal tales in these four 
volumes, the character of Uncle Remus himself has emerged 
as one of the permanent contributions to American, if not 
to world, fiction. The animal characters are also charm- 
ingly presented. What young American has not laughed 
at the pranks of Brer Rabbit, or rejoiced at the discom- 
fiture of Brer Fox, or delighted in the antics of the other 
wonderful members of the animal company which Uncle 
Remus 's vivid imagination has called up before him? The 
conversation of these talking beasts is so natural and in 
such perfect keeping with their characters that we are 
unable to detect a single false note or offer a single improve- 
ment upon the work as it lies before us. It is said that 
Brer Rabbit represents allegorically the weak and timid 
negro among his stronger white neighbors, represented by 
Brer Fox and the other animals, and since he is deficient 
in strength he has to resort to trickery and cunning to pro- 
tect himself. In this view there is a delightful vein of mild 
satire discoverable in the negro folk tales. 

Harris's other stories. Joel Chandler Harris wrote many ex- 
cellent stories of other kinds, as in Mingo and Other Sketches 
in Black and White (1884), Free Joe and Other Georgian 
Sketches (1887), Balaam and His Master and Other Sketches 
and Stories (1891), which are largely tales of the negro 
in connection with his white master; The Chronicles of 
Aunt Minervy Ann (1899), a well-nigh successful attempt 
to create a negro female character as a counterpart to 
Uncle Remus; At Teague Poteefs (1883), a story of the 
Georgia mountaineers; Tales of the Home Folks in Peace 
and in War (1898), and On the Wing of Occasions (1900), 
stories of various types of middle Georgia life at home and 
on their travels; and finally Wally Wanderoon and His 



Artistic or Creative Period: Southern Group 301 

Story-Telling Machine (1903), Little Mr. Thiniblefinger and 
His Queer Country (1894) and its sequel, Mr. Rabbit at Home 
(1895), a series of the most delightful fairy stories yet 
written in America. He also essayed one longer novel, 
Gabriel Tolliver, a Story of Reconstruction (1902), but this 
is not so successful as are his short stories and tales. 

Louisiana story writers. Louisiana is well represented 
by George Washington Cable (1844-), Grace King (1852-), 
and Ruth McEnery Stuart (1856-1917). Miss King has done 
some distinctive work in her artistic presentation of New 
Orleans life, her best stories being collected in the volume 
called Balcony Stories (1893). Mrs. Stuart produced good 
pathetic and humorous negro dialect stories, as in A Golden 
Wedding and Other Tales (1893); good Southern rural life 
stories as In Simpkinsville (1897) ; and a wonderfully charm- 
ing story of Arkansas rural life in Sonny (1894), the life 
history of the only child of Deuteronomy Jones, a backwoods 
Arkansas farmer. 

George Washington Cable. George Washington Cable 
(1844-) deserves fuller treatment. He discovered a unique 
field of local color or racial characteristics in the old Creole 
life in Louisiana, particularly in the old French quarter of 
early nineteenth century New Orleans. His volume of 
tales, Old Creole Days (1879), is a distinct contribution to the 
American local-color or regional short story. Two of his 
best long novels, The Grandissimes (1880) and Bonaventure, 
a Prose Pastoral of Acadian Louisiana (1888), prove Cable's 
ability to handle a larger theme in an artistic and satisfying 
way. He portrays the old Creole life with minute accuracy, 
loving sympathy, and artistic insight and imagination. 
In some of his later novels he has turned to the Reconstruc- 
tion and Civil War period, as in John March, Southerner 
(1894) and The Cavalier (1901) respectively, but he is not so 
convincing here as in the field which he made peculiarly 
his own in his earlier fiction. In his last book, The Flovoer of 



302 History of American Literature 

the Chapdelaines (191 8), Cable comes again to the old Creole 
life of New Orleans, and the critics of the volume have been 
almost unanimous in their verdict that the novelist has 
lost none of his original charm in this return to the field of 
his first inspiration. 

Charles Egbert Craddock. The Tennessee mountaineer 
and the wild seclusion and primitive surroundings of his 
mountain retreats is the peculiar realm which Charles 
Egbert Craddock, whose real name is Mary Noailles Murfree 
(1850-), has found for the exercise of her literary gifts. 
She spent much of her time in intimate study of the scenes 
and characters which she portrays, and hence her descrip- 
tions glow and glisten with all the beauty of the wild 
mountain scenery, and her presentation of the peculiar life, 
language, and social customs of the mountain people is 
convincing and realistic. W. M. Baskervill says of this 
author, "Her magic wand revealed the poetry as well as the 
pathos in the hard, narrow and monotonous life of the 
mountaineers, and touched crag and stream and wood and 
mountain range with an enduring splendor."^ She began 
her career in the early seventies by writing stories of the 
mountain folk for the magazines, and she published serially 
in The Atlantic Monthly almost all of her later stories. In 
1884 she collected her first volume of short stories under the 
title, In the Tennessee Mountains, and since that time Miss 
Murfree has published more than a dozen novels and volumes 
of short stories, most of them dealing in one way or another 
with the life of the Tennessee mountaineers. Perhaps her 
best novels are The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains 
(1885), In the Clouds (1887), The Despot of Broomsedge Cove 
(1889), and The Juggler (1897). 

Other Tennessee story writers. Sarah Barnwell Elliott, 
who was bom in Georgia and lived for a time in Texas, 
but whose home has been for many years in Sewanee, 

^Southern Writers, Vol. I. 



Artistic or Creative Period: Southern Group 303 

Tennessee, should be classed with Charles Egbert Craddock, 
inasmuch as she deals almost exclusively with the Tennessee 
mountaineers in her stories. vShe is the author of numerous 
novels dealing with moral and religious problems, not in the 
way of the ordinary purpose novel, but from the artistic 
point of view of the profound efTect of these problems on 
human life. Her best productions are the novels Jerry 
(1891) and The Durket S per ret (1897), and a volume of short 
stories. An Incident and Other Happenings (1899), all dealing 
with the Tennessee mountaineer and other social and racial 
problems in the South. Will Allen Dromgoole, of Murfrees- 
boro, Tennessee, the home- of Charles Egbert Craddock, is 
another Tennessee woman who has written successful 
mountaineer and negro dialect stories and poems. Her 
best stories are contained in The Heart of Old Hickory and 
Other Tennessee Stories (1895). 

James Lane Allen. James Lane AHen (1849-), of Ken- 
tucky, has found his most satisfactory field for literary 
exploitation in the Blue Grass region of his native state. 
His first volume of short Stories, Flute and Violin and 
Other Kentucky Tales and Romances (1891), is, many critics 
think, the best product of his art. He paints with an artist's 
enthusiasm the beauties of the Kentucky scene 'and life. 
There is a certain poetic quality in his prose style, too, which 
is attractive and appropriate to his themes. A Kentucky 
Cardinal (1894) and its sequel Aftermath (1895) are novel- 
ettes full of sincere love and enthusiasm for nature. The 
rich and beautiful descriptions of nature in her varying 
moods are woven in with a delicate thread of romance so as 
to make these stories decidedly attractive. The Choir Invis- 
ible (1897), a longer novel, also found a wide and eager public. 
The Reign of Law (1900) and The Mettle of the Pasture (1903), 
two other larger novels, probably did not meet with quite 
so generous a reception, but they, too, were widely read. 
The Reign of Law is called in its sub-title "A Tale of the 



304 History of American Literature 

Kentucky Hemp Fields, " but the hemp is only the incidental 
background or nature setting for the effects of the theory 
of evolution on the mind and faith of a young theological 
student. There is a frequent use of symbolism in Allen's 
stories, and in this he may be compared with Hawthorne. 
Sometimes this use of romantic symbolism seems extraneous 
to the theme of the story and has a tendency to retard rather 
than to propel or illuminate the action. Particularly is this 
true of the more recent works of this writer. Allen has 
never published hastily. He works long and patiently to 
gain his best effects. Breaking a silence of nearly six years 
after The Mettle oj the Pasture appeared, he published a 
short novel in 1909, The Bride of the Mistletoe, and followed 
it the next year with The Doctor's Christmas Eve. In 19 12 
A Heroine in Bronze was published, and in 191 5 The Sword 
of Youth. These last stories are written in a somewhat 
strained and over-refined style, and they have not aroused 
the same enthusiasm that greeted his earlier works, a good 
many readers now feeling all the more certain that 
Mr. Allen's first volumes were his best. 

John Fox, Jr. Another Kentucky writer is John Fox, Jr. 
(1863-). He has found his subject mostly in the Cumber- 
land mountains of his state and in the peculiar ideas of 
justice and social equity among the mountaineers. His- 
earliest success in this field was A Cumberland Vendetta and 
Other Stories (1896). His most widely read novels are The 
Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come (1903), The Trail of the 
Lonesome Pine (1908), and The Heart of the Hills (1913). 
Two additional volumes of short stories and descriptive 
sketches, Hell-fer-Sartain (1897) and Blue Grass and Rhodo- 
dendron (1901), deserve to be mentioned for their faithful 
portrayal of Kentucky scene and life, and particularly for 
the terse realism and dramatic force of some of the stories. 

Two women writers of Kentucky. George Madden 
Martin (1866-), of Louisville, has the distinction of pushing 



Artistic or Creative Period: Southern Group 305 

the range of the fiction country down into the elementary 
grades of the public schools in her Emmy Lou stories. 
These stories appeared serially in McClure's Magazine and 
were published in book form under the title Emmy Lou, 
Her Book and Her Heart (1902). The reahsm of child life, 
the intense emotion of the child soul, and the bigness of 
the child's problems were never better presented. Alice 
Hegan (1870-), also of Louisville, before her marriage to 
the poet and dramatist Cale Young Rice, has produced, 
besides other stories, two remarkably clever and spontane- 
ously humorous character studies in Mrs. Wiggs of the 
Cabbage Patch (1901) and its sequel Lovey Mary (1903). 
O. Henry. It is difficult to place 0. Henry in any local 
treatment of our writers of fiction. He seems to belong 
to the West — particularly the Southwest — as much as to 
the South, and as much to New York City as to the West. 
He is claimed by North Carolina, the state of his birth; 
by Texas, the state of his early success; and by the city of 
New York, the place where he finally won national fame. 
William Sydney Porter (1862-19 10), known to the general 
public almost entirely by his pen-name of O. Henry, was 
born in Greensboro, North Carolina, September 11, 1862. 
He grew up in the typical fashion of the moderately well- 
to-do people of the post-bellum period in the Carolinas. 
He attended the elementary private school conducted by 
his aunt. Miss Evelina Porter, to whose training he attrib- 
utes his love for story-telling. He became a voracious 
reader, especially between the ages of thirteen and nineteen. 
At sixteen he left school and became a clerk in a Greensboro 
drugstore. In 1881 he set out to Texas in company with 
Dr. J. H. Hall, eagerly seizing the opportunity to get a 
touch of Western life on a sheep ranch in La Salle County, 
Texas. Here he remained about two years, lounging 
around, working with the sheep, and amusing his friends 
by his gift for sketching, and by his ability to tell a 
20 



3o6 History of American Literature 

good story. It is said that in these leisurely days he read 
Webster's Unabridged Dictionary so assiduously that he 
could spell and define practically every word in it. 

0. Henry in Austin, Texas. About 1883 Will Porter, as 
he was familiarly called, moved to Austin, and became an 
intimate member of the family of Mr. Joe Harrell, whose 
sons recall many humorous cartoons, remarkable exhibitions 
of spelling and defining words, and one or two local love stories 
which Porter wrote at this time. He held several clerical 
positions, one among them being a draftsman's place in the 
Texas State Land Office. Presently he fell in love with 
and was married to Miss Athol Estes. After four years 
in the Land Office he became paying and receiving teller 
in an Austin bank, a position which eventually led to 
entanglements that put him under a cloud for several 
years. His biographer. Professor C. Alphonso Smith, 
emphatically declares that Porter was guiltless of the 
charges made against him and was clearly the victim of 
circumstances. At any rate his experiences during this 
dark period gave him an insight into the life of the under- 
world which he made good use of in his later stories. 

0. Henry's journalistic experiences. O. Henry was in- 
evitably to become either a writer or an artist. The whole 
trend of his life seemed to lead inevitably to humorous, 
caricature and short-story writing. While he was working 
for the bank he became editor-owner and chief contributor 
and illustrator of a breezy weekly paper called The Rolling 
Stone, bearing under its title the motto, " Out for the Moss." 
This paper "rolled" for nearly a year, as 0. Henry expressed 
it, and then stopped because it had gathered no moss. 
Porter was forced, under a charge of embezzlement, to 
resign from the bank, and he removed to Houston, where 
he obtained a position as reporter on The Houston Daily 
Post. A little later, to avoid the embarrassment of an 
open trial in the United States District Court at Austin, 




From a photograph by Paul Thompson, AM" 
O. HENRY 



3o8 History of American Literature 

he went away to Central America. But when he learned 
that his wife was hopelessly ill with tuberculosis, he 
bravely returned to Austin and faced the charge of em- 
bezzlement. 

0. Henry's successful career as a short-story writer. It was 
while he was under the indictment for embezzlement that he 
began to write under the pen name of 0. Henr3^ During a 
prison life of four years he wrote a number of stories which 
were accepted and published by good magazines. When he 
was released, he went to Pittsburgh, where his daughter 
Margaret was living with her grandmother. Here he contin- 
ued to write, and presently he was selling his stories regularly 
at one hundred dollars apiece to Ainslee's Magazine. It was 
in 1902 that he removed to New York to devote himself to 
authorship. In 1904 he undertook to furnish to The New 
York World a story a week for an entire year, and he renewed 
the contract in 1905. The success of his first voltune, 
Cabbages and Kings (1904), a loosely connected series of 
stories based on his Central American experiences, had 
already made his name well known, and from this period on 
to his death on June 5, 19 10, O. Henry was, so far as popular- 
ity goes, the foremost short-story writer of America. His 
stories were collected in twelve volumes between 1906 and 
191 1, Rolling Stones, a supplemental volume of fugitive 
material some of which is of biographic interest, being 
collected in 19 12 by his friend and literary executor, Harry 
P. Steger, to whom is due in large measure the growth of 
O. Henry's fame. The remaining titles of his books are 
The Four Millions (1906), being stories of New York life; 
Heart of the West (1907), being largely stories of life in 
Texas; The Gentle Grafter (1908), being mostly stories of 
the underworld; The Trimmed Lamp (1907), The Voice of 
the City (1908), Strictly Business (1908), Roads of Destiny 
C1909), Options (1909), Whirligigs (1910), and Sixes and 
Sevens (191 1), being collections of stories of miscellaneous 



Artistic or Creative Period: Southern Group 309 

types and localities, but dealing mainly with life in New 
York City. 

The best of 0. Henry's stories. it is difficult to select 
the best of O. Henry's stories, for he has written so many 
of them, — something over four hundred in all, — and has 
treated so many themes in such variety of localities, that 
almost every reader will have his own choice as to the best 
ten or a dozen stories. O. Henry had what may be called 
an experiencing nature. Whatsoever places he visited, 
whatsoever events he witnessed, whatsoever characters he 
met, he immediately absorbed into his own experiencing 
nature, and all became grist for his literary or short-story 
mill. He wrote stories of ranch and city life in Texas and 
the great Southwest; of life in the Old and the New South; 
of revolutions and political intrigues in Central America; of 
tramps and outlaws and grafters and criminals of the 
underworld as he found them represented in the United States 
prison at Columbus, Ohio; and finally, and chief of all, of 
the multifarious experiences of the more than four million 
of representatives of the great common masses in New 
York City. In particular he was the gallant defending 
knight, sans peur et sans reproche, of the underpaid, un- 
appreciated, and viciously pursued shop girls of the great 
city. To select the best stories covering all these phases 
of American life is, then, no easy task. Among the Western 
stories some prime favorites are "Hearts and Crosses," 
"The Caballero's Way," "The Reformation of Calliope," 
"Madam Bo-Peep of the Ranches," "A Double-Dyed 
Deceiver," and "A Retrieved Reformation." This last is 
better known as "Alias Jimmie Valentine," the title of a 
play based on the story. Among the New York stories the 
following are excellent: "The Gift of the Magi," "A Service 
of Love," "An Unfinished Story," "The Last Leaf," "The 
Green Door," and "The DupHcity of Hargraves." The 
scene of "A Municipal Report," one of the best of all 



3IO History of American Literature 

0. Henry's stories, is laid in Nashville, Tennessee, mainly 
to disprove Frank Norris's assertion that nothin<^ romantic 
could happen in such a city as Nashville. 

0. Henry s humor. If there is a single characteristic of 
O. Henry's that has endeared him to the American public 
more than any other, it is his ever-present and all-pervasive 
sense of humor. It is true that his inordinate use of slang 
has lost him many admirers, but it must be admitted that 
slang in the mouths of many of O. Henry's characters is 
perfectly natural and consistent, and that, moreover, the 
clever use of slang is to the great mass of readers distinctly 
humorous. But slang aside, the dominant trait of O. Henry's 
humor is the continued and yet varied recurrence of 
the unexpected. This is illustrated in the almost constant 
use of the surprise ending in his stories. The reader will 
inevitably smile as, figuratively speaking, he is tossed into 
the air by 0. Henry's clever trick of the double surprise at 
the conclusion of almost every story. Many of 0. Henry's 
stories seem to contravene nature and ordinary conventional 
life with surprising and delightful humor. "A Harlem 
Tragedy" and "The Ransom of Red Chief" are examples 
in point. In the first a woman dotes on her husband 
because he beats her and cuffs her about r in the second 
two desperadoes, instead of securing a large ransom for a' 
wild and wiry young boy whom they have kidnaped, are 
forced themselves to pay the boy's father a considerable 
sum to take the young scamp off their hands. O. Henry 
is extremely fond of puns, humorous word-play, and 
malapropisms. Occasionally a whole story is based upon 
a pun as in "The Ransom of Mack" and "Girl." In 
many stories O. Henry allows his ignorant characters to 
use big words in the wrong sense, mispronounce and mis- 
interpret, misquote familiar passages from Shakespeare 
and the Bible, and make all sorts of ludicrous and absurd 
blunders, much to the dehght of unsophisticated readers. 



Artistic or Creative Period: Southern Group 311 

But 0. Henry's humor is deeper than all these mere verbal 
quibbles, absurd contradictions, and playful superficialities. 
It is inherent in his conception of character and in his 
attitude toward the world. It is pervasive and funda- 
mental, and like all finer humor it is incapable of final analysis. 
Final summary. The chief qualities of 0. Henry's stories 
are realism touched with the glamour of romance, piquancy 
and cleverness of style and plot, a raciness of language with 
a large intermixture of slang, a real sympathy and true 
comprehension of the varied types of our democratic life, 
especially of the middle and lower classes, and an unfailing 
sense for the humorous and pathetic in every conceivable 
situation. He broke most of the conventional canons for 
correct writing, and yet he was a remarkably good technician 
in his own type of story. He says that the first rule in 
writing stories is to "write to please yourself; there is no 
second rule." The most striking individual characteristic of 
his stories as a whole is the surprise ending. Guess, prepare 
for it, watch for it as you may, you will inevitably be brought 
up with a laugh and a surprised feeling at the close of nearly 
every one of his more than two hundred and fifty short stories. 
Mr. Hyder E. RolHns in writing of this characteristic of 
O. Henry's makes a happy comparison: "Children play 
' crack-the-whip ' not for the fun of the long preliminary 
run, but for the excitement of the final sharp twist that 
throws them off their feet. So adults read O. Henry, 
impatiently glancing at the swiftly moving details in pleased 
expectancy of a surprise ending." But O. Henry's stories 
have more in them than the mere cleverness of their surprise 
endings. The}^ are drawn from real life, and there is in them 
a convincing actuality and truth, an interpretative power, a 
charm, a breadth of sympathy which lifts them into the realm 
of art. There is no longer any question of the security of 
this writer's place among the short-story writers of America. 
If Poe said the first word on the modern short story. 



312 History of American Literature 

0. Henry has said the latest. Professor C. Alphonso Smith 
in his admirable 0. Henry Biography (191 6), succinctly 
summarizes the progress of the American short-story in 
saying that Irving legendized the short story, Poe stand- 
ardized it, Hawthorne allegorized it, Bret Harte first success- 
fully localized it, and O. Henry humanized it., 

IV. The Central and Far Western Group 

PRELIMINARY SURVEY 

Meaning of the term West. West is a relative term. 
At one time in our history it meant the section of the interior 
just beyond the Atlantic coast settlements; next it meant 
the section beyond the Appalachian range, including the 
Ohio and Tennessee valleys; at another time it -meant the 
great Mississippi valley, and then it was extended to cover 
all the northwest territory drained by the Missouri and its 
tributaries; and finally it came to mean the Rocky Moun- 
tains and all the territory beyond, known as the Pacific slope. 
We still speak of the central portion of our country as the great 
plains of the Middle West, of the territory north and west of 
Missouri as the Northwest, of that south and west of Missouri 
as the Southwest, and the Rocky Mountain or Pacific slope 
territory as the Far West. In studying the latest division, 
of our literature we may designate it as the Central and 
Western Group. We might easily divide it into two or 
more groups, but since the literary history of the entire 
West in reality covers but little more than half a century, 
and since the dominant tone of all this later literature is 
practically identical throughout the nation, we may at 
present conveniently consider in one group the writers from 
the Central and the Far West. 

Period covered: 1865-1919. We shall find that the 
production of literature of permanent value in this latest 

^O. Henry Biography, pp. 244-245. 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 313 

period of our national literature really dates from about 
1865, or the period from the close of the Civil War to the 
present. The West had been already for more than half 
a century rapidly filling up, but the pioneers were engaged 
in subduing the new territory almost exactly as the colonists 
had done along the Atlantic coast at an earlier period, and 
like the colonists, they had little or no time for the develop- 
ment of the arts. Bold pioneers like Daniel Boone, George 
Rogers Clark, and Zebulun Pike had already pierced far 
into the western wilderness, and settlers gradually followed 
to fill up the sections explored. Population advanced along 
the line of least resistance and most promise, that is, along 
the valleys of the great drainage systems, such as the Ohio, 
Tennessee, Mississippi, and Missouri rivers. At last the rail- 
roads came to supplant the old methods of overland travel 
— the prairie schooner, the stage coach, and the pony 
express. With the improved methods of transportation 
and impelled by various impulses, such as crop failures at 
home, the discovery of gold and silver from time to time 
in the new country, and land hunger, emigrants moved to 
the West, so that by the middle of the century many of 
the Western states had already been admitted to the Union 
and most of the remaining domain was organized into 
territories awaiting admission as soon as the requisite number 
of inhabitants was attained. 

Westward territorial expansion. It is unnecessary to go 
further into the acquisition of the vast western territory 
than to remind the American history student that Jefferson 
completed the important Louisiana purchase in 1803, the. 
same year in which Ohio was admitted as a state. The 
wonderful expedition of exploration made by Lewis and 
Clarke in 1 804-1 806 had revealed the character and extent 
of the great Northwest as far as Oregon and the Pacific 
coast. The territory around the Great Lakes had been 
organized by 1809, and in 1818 Illinois was admitted as a 



314 



History of American Literature 



State. In 1820 the vast territory north and west of the south- 
ern boundary Hne of Missouri was organized, under the 
Missouri Compromise, as territory for the making of future 
free states, and Missouri was admitted as a state in 182 1. 




From the painting by Denman Fink 
SETTLERS MOVING WEST ALONG THE CUMBERLAND ROAD 

Wagon roads were opened throughout the West. In 1825 
the Erie Canal was completed, thus uniting by water the 
extreme western lakes with Albany, New York, and opening 
water communication thence south on the Hudson River 
to the Atlantic Ocean. In 1841 a railroad was completed 
as far west as Albany, and ten years later Chicago could be 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 315 

reached by rail. It was not until 1869 that the first great 
transcontinental railroad, stretching from the Atlantic to 
the Pacific seaboard, was finally put into operation, but in 
the meantime the overland stage routes had been greatly 
enlarged and improved, so that the nish of population west- 
ward could be at least partially accommodated. Texas 
gained its independence from Mexico in 1836 and applied 
for admission into the Union in 1845. Then followed the 
Mexican War, and by the peace of 1848 the United States 
acquired not only the Rio Grande border territory which 
was in dispute, but also the fine, rich territory on the Pacific 
slope and that northwest of Texas, including California, 
Utah, and New Mexico. In this same year gold was dis- 
covered in California, and in 1849 the Pacific slope territory 
was deluged with prospectors, later proudly designated as 
"forty-niners." In 1850 California was admitted as a 
state. The vast Oregon country, reaching as far north as 
Alaska, had been for a long time claimed by both England 
and the United States, but by a compromise agreement in 
1846 it was divided on the 49th parallel of latitude, the 
present boundary line between Canada and the United 
States. In this year, too, Iowa wa-s admitted as a state; 
in 1848 Wisconsin; in 1858 Minnesota; in 1859 Oregon. 
In 1854 the great struggle between the slavery and anti- 
slavery forces began in the Kansas-Nebraska territory, 
but these states were eventually brought in as free states in 
1 86 1 and 1867 respectively. Thus gradually the whole 
belt of the North American continent now occupied by the 
United States was organized into territories, and by the 
end of the Civil War by far the greater number of these 
territories had been admitted into the Union. 

Character of the Western literature. This condensed 
survey of the rapid development of the West will give us a 
basis for judging the literature that was to come from this 
section. The first writings were naturally descriptive of 



3i6 History of American Literature 

the new territory, its life, its possibilities, its resources. 
The records of crude pioneers Hke Daniel Boone and 
George Rogers Clark, and of more scientific explorers like 
Lewis and Clarke, and the private records, diaries and 
correspondence of other pioneer settlers make up the first 
contribution. The writers were largely American emi- 
grants from the Atlantic seaboard. Even down to the 
last quarter of the nineteenth century we shall find that 
many of the Western writers were born and educated in 
New England, the Middle Atlantic states, and the older 
Southern states, and were Western only in the sense that 
they had moved west with the tide of population and were 
recording Western scene and life as they saw it. But in 
more recent years the native sons of the West have come 
forward to express the real spirit of their section and at 
the same time of the nation at large; certainly the most 
characteristic literary products of the West since 1870 have 
come from writers born and educated there. 

Americanism, or the democratic spirit. The expression 
of pure Americanism, of the democratic spirit in its broadest 
significance, is the characteristic note of our Western litera- 
ture. Perhaps this native American spirit has developed 
more distinctly and rapidly in the West because this section 
was freest from the embittering effects of the Civil War. Its' 
territory saw little of the actual military campaigns, and 
its people were easily and quickly absorbed in their problems 
of developing the raw resources of the new country; so that 
they had little time to spend upon vain regrets, clearing 
up old scores, and preparing plans for the reconstruction 
and rehabilitation of the territory devastated by war. The 
Civil War itself was a great educative force, and the tide of 
emigration westward was only one of the effects of the 
diffusion of a resulting general knowledge of the resources 
and character of our country as a whole. New towns 
began to spring up as if by magic. With the invention 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 317 

and introduction of improved machinery, vast stretches 
of rich agricultural lands were brought under cultivation, 
and in the Middle West wheat and corn were eventually- 
grown in such quantities as to make this section one of the 
great granaries of the world. The Great Lakes and the 
Mississippi River and its tributaries formed the chief arteries 
for commerce, and the steamboat became the common 
carrier for the produce of all the Central West. New 
winters like Mark Twain and Bret Harte came to chant 
the vigorous life of river and mining camp ; great descriptive 
writers like John Muir to describe its wonderful beauty of 
scenery; clear- voiced poets Hke Joaquin Miller and Edward 
Rowland Sill to sing the songs of the Sierras; and novelists 
like Frank Norris to write the epic of wheat with all the 
complicated financial and industrial machinery involved 
in its production and distribution throughout the world. 
The wild herds of buffaloes had disappeared before the on- 
coming tide of civilization, and immense herds of cattle and 
sheep and horses came to take their place. In this rich, 
wild, broad, free country it was but natural that the new 
democratic note should predominate. Most of the writers 
were what we may term self-educated men, that is, they 
rarely had the advantage of a classical or college training. 
They gained their knowledge from actual contact with life 
rather than from books and academic lectures, and they 
were freed, consequently, from the restraints and limita- 
tions which a fuller knowledge of the older literature and 
standard Hterary models would have imposed upon them. 
The New York and New England writers had followed 
largely in the beaten Hterary tracks, and had submitted, 
perhaps unconsciously, to European rather than American 
ideals and standards of literary excellence. The authors 
of the new West hewed out fresh paths of literary travel 
and followed no standards except such as their own sense 
of fitness fixed for them. 



3i8 History of American Literature 

Lincoln, a typical product of the West. Abraham Lincoln 
( 1 809-1 865) is a typical product of the Middle West. He 
was bom in a log cabin in Kentucky, moved with his parents 
into Indiana when he was seven years old, and on into Illinois 
just as he reached his twenty-first year. He worked hard 
on the farm, later becoming known as the "rail-splitter," 
studied the Bible and Shakespeare closely, and thus prepared 
himself for his future career as a statesman. He had 
absorbed the very essence of the new Americanism as 
typified in the Western freedom and democratic spirit, and 
in i860, in spite of all obstacles, he was elected President 
of the United States. Every child knows of the terrible 
conflict which followed his inauguration in 1861, and every 
American now honors Abraham Lincoln along with George 
Washington as one of the great presidents of our country. 
Lincoln's tragic death at the hands of an assassin in Wash- 
ington City, April 15, 1865, plunged the whole country. 
North and South, into grief. No more unfortunate thing 
could have happened — especially to the South, facing as it 
did the trying period of reconstruction which was to fol- 
low- — than to lose at this critical juncture the influence of 
the great-brained, justice-loving, tender-hearted Lincoln. We 
do not ordinarily think of Abraham Lincoln as a literary 
man, but as a wise statesman and leader, a clear thinker,' 
and a forceful debater. But in the critical and distressing 
period through which he was called to lead our nation, 
the events all seemed to converge to a focus in the dra- 
matic moment when he delivered the. one supremely great 
literary utterance of his life, the celebrated "Address at the 
Dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery." The 
simplicity and directness of style, the compact and logical 
structure, the sincerity and power of the emotional appeal 
of this brief address have never been surpassed in American 
oratory. 

The spirit of optimism and humor. Besides this democratic 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 319 

or national note, one other general characteristic may be 
affirmed of Western literature as a whole: It is peculiarly 
suffused with a spirit of optimism and a sense of the humor- 
ous. Melancholy, gloom, pessimism, the modem note of 
morbidness and despair, have found little or no place in the 
literature of the West. Romance is prominent, optimism 
everywhere apparent, and humor widely diffused. "The 
Laughter of the West" is the title of a chapter in Professor 
Pattee's History of American Literature Since iSyo. Analyz- 
ing the chief contributions of the West to American literature, 
Professor George Edward Woodberry says: "The earliest 
stir of original literary impulse in the West was by way of 
humor. Laughter was bred into the people ; it solved many 
situations, it lessened the friction of close personal contact, 
it made for peace, being the alternative for ill-nature or a 
blow. The constancy of it shows its spontaneity. In the 
camps of the miner, on the river steamboats, in the taverns 
of the court circuit, there sprang up inexhaustible anecdotes, 
rallies of wit, yams, and fanciful lies and jokes on the dullard 
or the stranger. Out of this atmosphere came Lincoln, 
our greatest practical humorist, with that marvelous power, 
turning all he touched into wisdom; and on the free, imag- 
inative side, Mark Twain, our capital example, was blood 
and bone- of the Western humor. "^ 

Publishing centers. In so vast a territory and so young a 
business and social organization it was not to be expected 
that definite schools or coteries of writers or any important 
literary centers should be developed. It is perhaps due 
largely to the isolation and widely scattered distribution 
of the Western writers that they have been forced to rely 
more fully on their own independence of thought and 
originality of expression. The publishing centers remained 
largely in the East, it is true, but the demand for fresh 
local literature from all parts of the country, South and 

"i^Ainerica in Literature, p. 158. 



320 History of American Literature 

West alike, was not to be resisted by the Northern and 
Eastern publishers, even if they had desired to resist it, 
a thing which in reality the publishers never did. The 
Western newspapers developed very rapidly, of course, and 
some publishing centers like Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. 
Louis, Chicago, and San Francisco sprang up to supply the 
growing demand for the publication of both books and 
magazines. The Overland Monthly was established in 1868 
in San Francisco with Bret Harte as its editor, and in 
1880 The Dial, a critical literary journal, made its appear- 
ance at Chicago.^ 

THE MAJOR WESTERN WRITERS 

Classification of the writers. The full spirit of the West 
is well represented in its literature. Besides Lincoln, who 
has already been mentioned as the typical figure of the new 
democratic spirit, the major prose writers are Mark Twain 
and Bret Harte, and the major poets are Joaquin Miller, 
Eugene Field, James Whitcomb Riley, and William Vaughn 
Moody. From the national point of view there may be 
some objection to the classification of all of these as major 
writers. There may be in them some lack of literary con- 
formity and adherence to traditions, but they have voiced 
a new American ideal; and whether all of them may be 
classed in the rank of major writers or not, is purely an 
academic question. All of them certainly deserve large 
attention in any well balanced survey of our literature. 
After a somewhat fuller study of these major writers, we 
shall proceed to a briefer treatment of the more important 
remaining Western poets and writers of fiction. 

Samuel Langhorne Clemens — Mark Twain. Mark Twain 
is not merely our greatest humorist; he is also one of our 
greatest creative geniuses, and he is undoubtedly our one 
writer who is most thoroughly representative of the genuine 

iln 191 8 The Dial was transferred to New York City. 





SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS 
(Mark Twain) 



21 



322 History of American Literature 

American spirit and life. For a long time he was looked upon 
as a mere jester, and his works were not accepted as belong- 
ing at all to the best class of literature ; but from the first he 
was accepted at his real worth by a few discerning ones, and 
during the past two decades the critics and the public alike 
have come to realize that Mark Twain is one of the few 
creative giants that have sprung out of our democratic soil. 
He shares with Walt Whitman the distinction of coming up 
directly from the common democratic masses, and with him, 
too, he shares the almost unanimous approval and applause 
of European critics. 

Early life as a printer and river pilot. Samuel Langhorne 
Clemens (183 5-1 910), the son of John Clemens and Jane 
Lampton, both of unpretentious but sterling Southern 
families, was bom November 30, 1835, in the hamlet of 
Florida, Missouri, some fifty miles west of the Mississippi 
River. Four years later the family moved to Hannibal, a 
typical river town about a hundred miles north of St. Louis; 
and here grew up in all the freedom of that border life the 
boy who was to make the town famous by enshrining its 
life in those immortal books, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry 
Finn. It was almost impossible to keep Sam in the village 
school or to make him study his lessons, but the efifort was 
kept up until he reached his twelfth year. He was then 
apprenticed to learn the printer's trade, a fortunate choice, 
since it brought him into contact with type and printer's 
ink and thus helped to complete the scanty education he 
had received in the village school. He worked for six years 
as a "printer's devil" on the local newspapers, and as one of 
his companions remarked, he was rightly named in this 
position. Then he took a sort of journeyman's trip to the 
East to complete his training as a printer. He remained 
for a year or more in Philadelphia and New York, but he 
was not satisfied to become a mere typesetting machine, 
and so he turned his face westward once more to seek fame 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 323 

and fortune in the land of his birth. For about two years 
he was Horace Bixby's cub, or assistant on a steamboat, 
learning the business of a pilot on the Mississippi River, 
and for about two years more he was himself a master pilot 
on that treacherous river. He was proud of his profession, 
and later in life he declared that he loved it far better than 
any other business he had tried. The Civil War brought to 
a close this period of his career, but we have a faithful por- 
trayal of the vanished past of Mississippi pilotage in his 
reminiscent treatment in Life on the Mississippi (1883). 

Experiences in the Far West. His next experience carried 
him to the Far West. He joined a troop preparatory to 
enlisting in the Confederate Army, but a few weeks of 
camp life convinced him that soldiering was not the sort of 
occupation that suited him. He was led by his Southern 
ancestry and his environment (for he was reared in a slave- 
holding community) to espouse the Southern cause, but 
deep down in his heart there was little enthusiasm for it. 
His eldest brother had just been appointed territorial secre- 
tary of Nevada, and young Clemens was offered the oppor- 
tunity of going along as his assistant. So during the years 
from 1861 to 1867 he was again enlarging his education by 
looking on and taking part in those wild and stirring activi- 
ties of the newly opened West. He soon felt the call of the 
gold and struck out for fortune in the mining districts. He 
did not succeed in finding much gold, though he came 
perilously near to it on several occasions, but he did succeed 
in storing his mind with all those wonderful experiences out 
of which he was to mint the golden romance of some of his 
later books, such as The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Cal- 
averas County and Other Sketches (1867) and Roughing It 
(1872). 

Newspaper reporter: origin of pen-name ''Mark Twain." 
Discouraged in his fruitless mining operations, young 
Clemens turned to his old occupation and became local 



324 History of American Literature 

reporter on The Enterprise, a rather distinctive paper pub- 
lished at Virginia City, a thriving rnining town that had 
sprung up Hke magic around the great silver mines known as 
the Comstock lode. Many were the practical jokes and 
startling schemes indulged in by the lively group of news- 
paper men engaged on this paper, and it was the rampant 
imagination of the young reporter that usually led in these 
escapades. Soon he was sent to Carson City to report the 
doings of the newly formed legislature, and as was expected 
of him, he sent back a series of exceedingly breezy letters. 
These were unsigned at first, but they were being widely 
copied, and he felt that he ought to choose a pen-name so 
as to conserve and center his reputation around it. He hit 
upon the happy combination of Mark Twain, an old river 
term meaning the mark registering two (twain) fathoms, or 
twelve feet, of water. He said it had a comforting sound, 
for whenever a pilot heard that reading called out, he knew he 
was in a safe depth of water. His reputation was spreading 
rapidly now, and so the call to the wider world led him to 
San Francisco. It must be confessed, however, that the 
immediate cause of his leaving Carson City was to avoid 
prosecution upon the charge of accepting a challenge to a 
duel, even though the duel was the celebrated one which 
never came off. At San Francisco he met Bret Harte and' 
other men of local fame as journalists, poets, lecturers, and 
artists of one sort or another, and under the influence of this 
new environment his style developed rapidly from what he 
called an awkward and grotesque sort of natural utterance, 
into a more facile literary type of prose. 

Mark Twain's luck as a pocket miner. His vigorous news 
letters which he still sent back to his old employers on The 
Virginia City Enterprise soon got him into trouble with the 
poHce of San Francisco, — for he did not hesitate to attack 
some of their corrupt practices, — and he was forced to leave 
the city for a while. With his pal, Jim Gillis, who was the 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 325 

original of Bret Harte's "Truthful James," he went to the 
mountains of east California and engaged in the fascinating 
game of pocket mining. The partners were just on the 
verge of uncovering a rich treasure of nuggets when they 
deserted their claim and allowed some more fortunate miners 
to come along and discover a rich pocket just a few feet from 
where they stopped. But the real chance of Mark Twain's 
life came from this experience, for here he ran across the 
droll story of "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras 
County. " It was early in 1865 that he first heard the story, 
and by the end of this year, upon the publication of the story 
in the East, Mark Twain was well on his way to fame. 

"The Innocents Abroad." After the pubHcation of this 
early volume of sketches in 1867, he continued his news- 
paper work in San Francisco, making one very successful 
trip to the Hawaiian Islands. He also won some fame as a 
lecturer at this time. But the first really great success came 
when he got a commission to travel through Europe and the 
Holy Land with a group of Americans who were to make 
the voyage in the Quaker City. By skillful persuasions he 
convinced the owners of The Alta Calif ornian that he coiild 
send them a series of letters that would be worth the price 
of the trip , something over $ i , 2 00 . He wrote fifty-odd letters 
of his experiences on this trip, and these were later collected 
in a book which took the public by storm — namely, The 
Innocents Abroad (1869). Other books of travel and of 
impressions gained abroad had been written by Irving, 
Longfellow, Hawthorne, and Bayard Taylor, but this was 
an entirely new type. It was extravagantly humorous, 
boisterously funny, and yet filled with wonderful passages of 
description and comment on the really impressive scenes of 
the old world. The book was at bottom a severe satire on 
the sentimental and gushy type of description that was 
found in the guide books and travel letters of the day. 
Mark Twain went abroad with his eyes open, and he laughed 



326 History of American Literature 

to scorn those American innocents who were ever ready to 
gulp down with rolling eyes and ecstatic exclamations every 
fossilized legend that the sentimental guide books or the 
stereotyped talk of their paid guides gave them. The breezy, 
original, humorous, human, and frankly American revela- 
tions of this new writer who saw things with his own eyes 
and reported them as he saw them met with immediate and 
widespread approval. 

His marriage: journalistic work. It was on this tour that 
Mark Twain met Charlie Langdon and saw for the first time 
the beautiful miniature of Langdon' s sister Olivia, the 
woman who was to become his wife and the most pro- 
foundly formative influence on his character and on his 
later attitude toward his art. She was a wealthy girl, and 
it seemed almost unthinkable that an unknown Westerner 
without money, formal culture, or social position should 
aspire to her hand. But by persistence and patience Mark 
Twain overcame all obstacles, and he was in every sense of 
the word happily mated with this charming woman. She 
called him always by the suggestive pet name of "Youth," 
and all through her life, by his own confession, she was his 
most helpful and sympathetic, critic, aiding him to realize 
himself to the fullest extent in the more serious and lasting 
products of his art. Upon their marriage in 1870, they 
went to Buffalo, where through the help of Mr. Langdon 
Mark Twain had become part owner and associate editor of 
The Buffalo Express. But the venture was not a fortunate 
one; sorrows due to death and sickness followed, and pres- 
ently the young couple sold their property in Buffalo and 
retired to Elmira, New York, for the summer, and then 
moved to Hartford, Connecticut, where they made their 
home for a number of years. 

Mark Twain as a lecturer. After giving up his journal- 
istic position, Clemens arranged to go on the lecture plat- 
form to recoup his fortunes. He had succeeded from the 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 327 

ver}^ first as a lecturer in California, and had captivated 
audiences in the East and in the Middle West just after 
his return from his first trip abroad; so he undertook his 
second tour with full confidence. He won his audiences 
by his slow, drawling speech and by his narrative and 
dramatic powers, as well as by his inimitable dry humor 
and flashes of pure wit. He was acclaimed the most 
popular lecturer and reader in America, but he never liked 
this work and resorted to the platform only when it was 
necessary to recover from some financial difficulty. 

"Roughing It." Roughing It appeared in 1872, and was 
almost or quite as popular as The Innocents Abroad had 
been. This new book was based on his experiences in the 
West, and to many readers it is more entertaining than 
The Innocents Abroad, mainly because it is more thoroughly 
American in subject-matter and treatment. To protect his 
rights of publication in this new volume, Mark Twain made 
a trip to England. He had some notion also of gathering 
material for a new book on the English people ; but when he 
was treated so cordially and honored so signally by them, 
he gave up the idea, confessing that he could not bring 
himself to dishonor their hospitality by exploiting them in a 
himiorous book. 

''The Gilded Age.'' On his return to America he collab- 
orated with Charles Dudley Warner in the production of a 
novel called The Gilded Age. In this book Mr. Warner did 
the romance, and Mark Twain drew the characters, model- 
ing them mostly from the members of his own family. The 
character of Colonel Mulberry Sellers, the dreamer and 
idealist, drawn from James Lampton, his maternal uncle, is 
one of the most magnetic and original of all Mark Twain's 
creations. Colonel Sellers was later made the central figure 
in a successful play. 

''Tom Sawyer'' and "Huckleberry Finn." After another 
trip to London in which he registered a signal triumph as 



32{ 



History of American Literature 



a lecturer, Mark Twain began the composition of a new 
book which was to surpass in popularity anything he had 
yet done. This was the wonderful story of boy life on the 




.MARK TWAIN AT HIS OLD HOME IN HANNIBAL, MISSOURI 

Mississippi, based on his own experiences and those of 
several of his companions in the old days at Hannibal, 
Missouri. Other work interrupted him before he com- 
pleted the task, however, and it was not until 1876 that 
Tom Sawyer made its appearance. This book and The 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 329 

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) , with which it is usually 
bracketed, are, according to the consensus of opinion, the 
finest creative achievement of Mark Twain's genius. Tom 
is the typical American boy, bad and yet not too bad to 
be likable, rough and ready, shrewd, courageous, sincere, 
genuine. His story is so realistically told that many 
persons believe that the hero actually lived through the 
adventures described. Huckleberry Finn is a poor outcast 
from the very lowest stratum of society, but he had a tender 
heart and a pure soul wrapped in his unkempt and hardened 
little body. The book is one of the finest pieces of realism 
in modem literature. It gives us a faithful presentation of 
the mid-century life on the Mississippi, the scenes coming 
on in rapid succession like a vivid panorama moving before 
our very eyes. There is nothing unnatural or accidental, 
nothing romantic, but all appears to be just as it is in real 
life. This book, together with Tom Sawyer and Life on the 
Mississippi, gives us our truest historical picture of the 
vanished life on the great inland waterway. Huckleberry 
Finn has been singled out not only as Mark Twain's master- 
piece, but as one of the world's great books. 

Mark Twain's other important works. Among his many 
other volumes, two or three at least must be inentioned. 
The romantic extravaganza, A Connecticut Yankee in King 
Arthur's Court (1889), is a humorous presentation of the 
new democratic ideals as opposed to the ancient aristoc- 
racies and monarchical forms of government. The Prince 
and the Pauper (1881), a delightful juvenile romance, had 
previously set forth something of the same teaching in the 
plot whereby a prince and a pauper are made to change 
places in order that each may see how the other half of the 
world lives. These two books, together with Pudd'nhead 
Wilson (1894), a searching study of negro slavery punctu- 
ated with Mark Twain's keen and exhilarating epigrams 
or maxims through the speeches of the title character. 



330 History of American Literature 

and Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896), a historical 
study cast in memoir form, a powerful piece of writing and 
the one of all his works that Mark Twain liked best, make 
up the more valuable of his later productions. In most of 
his other works, particularly in the field of literary criticism, 
he displays more courage than good judgment. 

The story of his debts. The story of Mark Twain's debts 
is to be placed with Sir Walter Scott's very similar struggle 
as one of the two most inspiring examples of business 
integrity recorded in modern literary history. Being him- 
self somewhat of a dreamer, he allowed many impractical 
enthusiasts to enlist his aid in their wild financial specu- 
lations, and he lost heavily in most of these investments. 
At last he became involved in large losses through a pub- 
lishing house with which he was connected as a partner. 
When an assignment was forced upon the firm, Mark 
Twain gave up all his own property, and his wife also 
generously put in her patrimony to satisfy the creditors; 
but there was still a large siun found to be owing. Through 
the bankruptcy laws he might have settled legally by 
simply giving up all the assets of the company, but he 
asked for time, saying that he would pay dollar for dollar 
if he lived to earn it. In his sixtieth year he set himself 
resolutely to the task of molding his talents into cash 
through his writings and his lectures. In 1895 he began 
the memorable lecture tour around the world, beginning in 
America and moving westward to Australia, New Zealand, 
India, Ceylon, and South Africa, landing finally in Vienna, 
Austria. This marvelous lecture tour, perhaps the most 
notable on record, netted him a large sum. With this 
and the additional income from his books, within two and 
a half years he had paid every dollar of the debts of his 
firm and was again a free man with untarnished business 
honor. 

Honors heaped upon Mark Twain. From a humble 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 331 

beginning Mark Twain had reached a dizzy height in the 
affectionate regard of his own people and of the world. 
He was not spoiled by his success, however, and he 
refused to compromise himself by exploiting his popularity 
or appearing before the public for personal gain. He gave 
his services freely for the public good, but he had a com- 
petency now, and there was no longer need for him to pile 
up money. He was greater than kings and potentates, 
for he commanded the affectionate regard of millions of 
men through the magnetism, sincerity, and geniality of 
his own personality. Missouri, through the State Univer- 
sit3% honored her son with the degree of LL.D., and some 
years later even the conservative old-world University of 
Oxford conferred upon him her coveted degree of Litt. D. 
He made other voyages abroad in search of recreation 
and health, for his constitution was gradually weakening. 
His wife died in 1903 in Florence, Italy, and the blow was 
a severe one to Mark Twain. He took up his residence in 
New York City with his one surviving daughter, and fought 
bravely but ineffectually against a growing sense of loneli- 
ness, bitterness, and pessimism. On his seventieth birthday 
a great dinner was given in his honor in New York, and on 
this occasion he delivered perhaps the greatest of all his 
speeches. In his last years he retired to Stormfield, a 
beautiful home that had been built for him at Redding, 
Connecticut, and here he died, April 21, 19 10, in his seventy- 
fifth year. He was buried beside the bodies of his wife and 
three of his children in Elmira, New York.^ 

Bret Harte. Francis Bret Harte (1839-1902) was by 
birth and training an Easterner, being born in Albany, 
New York, August 25, 1839; but he earned his reputation 
by writing poems and stories dealing with the wild scenery, 



^Mark Twain, A Biography (1912) by Albert Bigelow Paine is the author- 
itative life of this author. Mr. Paine' s The Boy's Life of Mark Twain (1916) 
is a briefer and simpler story based on the larger w ork. 



332 History of American Literature 

conglomerate life, and odd characters of the mining districts 
of California, and so he is always thought of as belonging 
to the western group of writers. Harte received only a 
common-school education, the principal source of his lit- 
erary training being his parents. His father, a professor 
of Greek in Albany College, was a linguist of considerable 
attainments, and his mother a cultured woman who directed 
her son's reading with such judicious care that by the time 
he was grown he was exceedingly well read. In 1854 he 
went to California and there tried to earn a living through 
several small clerical and teaching positions. He finally 
entered a newspaper printing office as a compositor, and by 
dint of steady purpose and persistent effort at writing he 
rose to successful editorial positions, first on The Golden Era 
and then on The Calif or nian, a weekly paper to which he 
contributed his " Condensed Novels," these being parodies on 
popular works of English and American fiction. 

Bret Harte' s stories of Western mining life. In 1868 The 
Overland Monthly was founded with Bret Harte as its editor. 
The first number appeared without any matter of a dis- 
tinctly local character; so for the second number the young 
editor supplied the deficiency himself by writing his first 
story of mining life, "The Luck of Roaring Camp." The 
proprietor of the magazine became dubious as to the wisdom 
of printing such a frank and novel presentation of a situation 
so unusual, characters so rough and uncouth, and life in 
such a questionable stratum of society. But when the 
editor-author of the story threatened to resign unless allowed 
to exercise his own judgment unhampered in selecting 
matter for the magazine, the proprietor yielded and the 
story appeared in its original form. It provoked a good deal 
of protest at home, being characterized as indecent, immod- 
est, improper, and unfaithful in its portrayal of the better 
phases of Western life ; but it was warmly welcomed in the 
East as the work of an original writer of great promise. The 




FRANCIS BRET HARTE 



334 History of American Literature 

editor of The Atlantic Monthly begged for a similar contri- 
bution, and a number of letters of commendation came 
to the author of this new type of story. "The Outcasts 
of Poker Flat," "Miggles," and "Tennessee's Partner" 
followed, and presently Bret Harte had enough stories in 
this vein to make up a volume. These stories, together 
with a catchy, humorous kind of dialect verse, of which 
"The Heathen Chinee" or "Plain Language from Truthful 
James," and "Jim" are typical, made Harte famous not 
only in America but in England as well. 

Harte s connection with ''The Atlantic Monthly.'' In 
1870, being flattered by the applause of the East, Harte 
went to New York to engage in writing for the magazines. 
The Atlantic Monthly paid him the munificent sum of 
$10,000 for all his work for a year, and he was probably at 
that time the best paid short-story writer in the country. 
But in spite of his large earnings he became involved in 
debt. To escape from his difficulties he accepted an appoint- 
ment in the consular service and went to Germany and 
then to Glasgow, Scotland. Finally he settled in England, 
where he was even more popular than he was in America. 
He became estranged from his family and remained in 
England until his death in 1902. 

Harte' s place and influence in our literature. Harte wrote ' 
many stories and poems imitative of his first successful 
work, but the promise of his early output was not realized 
in his later productions. He did not seem to love the 
country he had so successfully exploited in his stories. 
He was not a great interpreter of the real American spirit, 
as was his early contemporary and colleague, Mark Twain, 
but he caught the spirit of the California mining camp in 
the gold-fever days as nobody else was able to do, and he 
has preserved for future generations this small but inter- 
esting and now completely vanished phase of American life. 
He was confessedly a lover and follower of Dickens, and like 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 335 

him did not hesitate to portray all sorts of low characters, 
rough miners, gamblers, adventurers, desperadoes, and 
unchaste women, and in each of these he discovered that 
element of the human, that touch of nature which after all 
makes the whole world kin. His range was narrow, but he 
did good work in the local short story, in which type of 
writing his influence has been by no means insignificant.^ 

Joaquin Miller. Cincinnatus Heine Miller (1842-19 13), 
better known by his pen-name Joaquin Miller, was born on 
November 10, 1842, somiewhere on the border line between 
Ohio and Indiana. He tells us in the autobiographical 
sketch prefixed to his complete works that his cradle was a 
covered wagon, one of those "prairie schooners" in which 
his pioneer parents were making their long journey west- 
ward. They settled for a while in Indiana but finally decided 
to push on to Oregon, a distance of over three thousand 
miles, where they made their permanent home. Joaquin 
had his full share of the hardships and adventurous experi- 
ences that naturally fell to this pioneer family. Once he 
was painfully wounded in a fight with some unfriendly 
Indians; an arrow pierced his face and neck and almost 
caused his death. But during these years he learned to 
love the wild Western life and the picturesque and beautiful 
things of this wonder world of nature with a passion which 
made him unquestionably the poet laureate of the Far 
West, or as he was frequently called, "The Poet of the 
Sierras." 

His wanderings. As a young adventurer Miller went 
from Oregon to California and took passage for Boston, but 
he stopped off at Nicaragua on his voyage down the Pacific 
and joined General Walker in his romantic revolutionary 
expedition into that country. His Central American experi- 
ences later found expression in the long poem "Walker in 



1 The fullest life of Bret Harte is that by H. C. Merwin. The shorter 
study by H. W. Boynton is more judicious if less eulogistic. 



336 History of American Literature 

Nicaragua." Then he drifted back to the coast of Oregon, 
spent a short time at college, and became a teacher. He 
studied law, was admitted to the bar, and was for a short 
time a district judge. He had been writing a great deal of 
prose and verse during these later years, but his productions 
met with little favor. The lure of the mountains was ever 
drawing him away from his social and legal duties, and 
when gold was discovered in Idaho and Montana, he left 
all and joined the stream of miners which flowed into those 
states. He accumulated enough .of the precious dust to 
build a home for his parents and purchase a newspaper for 
himself. At the opening of the Civil War he threw his 
influence toward the peace party, and as a result of his 
vigorous editorials his paper was suppressed. Again he 
retired to the mountains to live alone with nature and to 
write poetry. 

Miller's visit to England. About 1870 he crossed the 
continent and took passage from New York to England. 
He felt that he could never find an audience in his own 
•country, for he had already published several thin volumes 
which had attracted little or no attention either in the 
West, where they were printed, or in the East, where he 
hoped to find recognition. In London he lived a secluded 
life until he published at his own expense a voliime of 
poems. This work included an earlier poem on Joaquin 
Murietta, a Mexican bandit, from which he was him- 
self called Joaquin, partly in derision, a name which he 
permanently assumed as his pen-name in his next voliune. 
The seven poems in his first volume caught the English ear 
by their novelty and vigor and unmistakable evidences of 
poetical genius. The metrical crudeness and lack of literary 
finish were everywhere recognized; but the English press 
praised his work extravagantly, and he was enabled to bring 
out his first really important volume. Songs of the Sierras, 
in 1 87 1. His own picturesque personality in his pioneer garb 




JOAQUIN MILLER AT HIS CALIFORNIA HOME 



22 



338 History of American Literature 

the rich new experiences heralded from an unknown world, 
and the varied and beautiful scenery of the great Rocky 
Mountains which formed the staple of his poetry, made 
him for a time a sort of literary lion in London. He was 
invited to dine with many notable persons, met such men 
as Dickens, Browning, Archbishop Trench, Moore, Rosetti, 
and was cordially received in clubs and private families. 

His cabin near Washington City and his lodge in California. 
In spite of his success in London, little attention was paid 
to him in America, for in his uncouth Western garb he was 
looked upon as an unfair representative of American culture 
and art. He had to wait long and patiently for an apprecia- 
tive hearing in his own country. For a time he lived near 
Washington City, building for himself a log cabin on Stony 
Creek, a few miles north of the city. This cabin is still an 
object of interest to the thousands of people who drive in 
the beautiful park which has since been laid out there. He 
finally purchased a mountain-side of his own in Oakland, 
California, in sight of San Francisco, and built for himself 
the lodge in which he lived until his death in 19 13. 

General estimate of Miller s work. Joaquin Miller caught 
the spirit of the Western mountain scenery as none who had 
not lived with it could do. He is no imitator of the European 
bards, but an original American poet who was willing to 
put down in his own way what his own eyes saw and his own 
heart felt. He had his limitations and his faults, but he 
has earned a secure place among the poets who are thor- 
oughly American in spirit and in subject-matter. 

Eugene Field. Eugene Field (i 850-1 895) was born in 
St. Louis, Missouri, September 3, 1850, and died in Chicago, 
November 4, 1895, having just completed his forty-fifth 
year. He was taken to New England for his early education, 
and he finished what academic training he had at the Uni- 
versity of Missouri. He sacrificeed his degree to make a six 
months' tour of Europe. At twenty-three Field began his 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 339 

journalistic career as a reporter on The St. Louis Evening 
Journal, and after working on a number of papers he rose 




From a photograph taken bv Max Platz, Chicago 
EUGENE FIELD 

to a permanent position on The Chicago Daily News, in 
which paper for the last twelve years of his life he conducted 
a unique colimm called "Sharps and Flats." This was a 
series of miscellanies in prose and poetry, covering a wide 
range of interests, by turns humorous, farcical, grotesque, 
pathetic, and serious. The material in the "Sharps and 



340 History of American Literature 

Flats" column was largely local in appeal, and in spite of its 
cleverness has now naturally lost much of its force. 

Field's books. In 1890 appeared two thin volumes of 
Field's productions — A Little Book of Profitable Tales and 
A Little Book of Western Verse. From this time on, his 
popularity steadily grew, although he lived to enjoy only 
five years of the vogue created by the publication of these 
books. Two other volumes, Witk Trumpet and Drum and 
Love Songs of Childhood, containing old and new poems, 
appeared just before his death. 

His personality. Eugene Field was possessed of a lovable 
personality. He was interested in children of all classes and 
was an idealist in his home, where he had a devoted wife and 
eight children of his own. He was' extremely sympathetic 
toward animal life, companionable and magnetic among 
all classes of people, full of sentiment and imaginative 
idealism, and yet, like many another genius, he was erratic, 
extravagant, unconventional in his habits, and obsessed 
with his own peculiar fads and fancies. His best work was 
his inimitable child verse. He has been called "one of the 
sweetest singers in American literature and incomparably 
the noblest bard of childhood." His delicate sentiment, 
imaginative quality, and unconscious sincerity lift his child 
verse into the realm of art, and he is thus assured a unique 
niche in the American temple of poetic fame. His best 
known child pieces are "A Dutch Lullaby (Wynken, Blyn- 
ken, and Nod)," "Little Boy Blue," "Jest 'Fore Christmas," 
and "Seein' Things at Night." His two most significant 
moods — the imaginatively sentimental and the pathetic — 
are illustrated in the "Dutch Lullaby" and "Little Boy 
Blue." "In the Firelight" is an example of childhood 
experience glorified through reminiscence into a noble 
expression of faith. 

James Whitcomb Riley. If poetic merit should be judged 
merely by popularity with the reading public and with 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 341 

lecture audiences, James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916), the 
Hoosier poet, would undoubtedly outrank all other Ameri- 
can poets with the single possible exception of Longfellow. 
He was born in the town of Greenfield, Indiana, October 7, 
1849 (other dates from 185 1 to 1853 frequently given are 
now held to be incorrect) , and lived all his life in his native 
state, his residence being during his late years on the retired 
little Lockerbie Street in Indianapolis. As a youth he is 
described as a delicate and slender lad with corn-silk hair, 
wide blue eyes, large nose, and freckled face. But he was 
not, as one might suppose from this description and from 
reading many of his later dialect poems, a backwoods, 
poverty-stricken country boy. On the contrary, he was the 
son of a well-to-do lawyer in a moderate sized central 
Indiana town of the mid-nineteenth century. ■ He did not 
take full advantage of his school opportunities, however, 
preferring to spend his time loitering around the country, 
filling his mind with the images and experiences which he 
was later to enshrine so sympathetically and truly in his 
reminiscent verse. 

Riley's wanderings as a sign painter. His tendency 
toward artistic expression early manifested itself in his 
ability to play by ear on several musical instruments and in 
his talent for drawing. At sixteen he learned the house- 
and sign-painting trade and went about the country for 
two years with several companions, practicing his vocation. 
Then he was induced to try reading law in his father's office 
for a time, but when, as he declares, he found out that 
there were no rimes in the law books, he "slipped out of 
the office one summer afternoon when all outdoors was 
calling imperiously, shook the last dusty premise from my 
head, and was away." He found an opening more to his 
taste at that period of his life with a traveling medicine man. 
His duties were to paint or draw the advertisements, assist 
the troup of actors, remodel their songs and scenes, and 
22 A 



342 History of American Literature 

perhaps take part in the acting and mimicry himself, for 
which, by the way, he had a decided talent. 

Riley's early poems: " The Ole Swimmin' Hole." He was 
continually trying himself out in original poems which he 
sent to local newspapers. Once he published "Leonainie, " 
a poem which he pretended was signed by E. A. P. on the 
flyleaf of an old volume owned by Edgar Allan Poe. So 
successful was the hoax that it attracted nation-wide com- 
ment, many critics accepting the verses as a genuine work 
of Poe's. A storm of indignant protest arose when the trick 
was discovered, and Riley says that as a result he lost his 
position on The Anderson Democrat, a local paper on which 
he was working at the time. He was immediately called to 
join the staff of The Indianapolis Journal, however, and it 
was in this paper that he first began the long series of dia- 
lect poems purporting to come from a simple and unsophis- 
ticated farmer, Benj. F. Johnson, of Boone, the original 
Hoosier poet. Riley prepared long illiterate letters explain- 
ing how he, Johnson, came to write these poems, and how 
the tears rolled down his cheeks sometimes as he wrote. 
"The Ole Swimmin' Hole" was the first of the series pub- 
lished in the Journal in 1882, and in 1883 appeared Riley's 
first volume, The Ole Swimmin' Hole and 'Leven More Poems. 

Riley's popularity as poet and public reader. Through a 
long series of years there continued to flow from his pen 
poem after poem until he became one of our most volumi- 
nous poets. The public bought his books by the hundreds of 
thousands and still clamored for more. He was called before 
the public to give readings, and he later became one of the 
most popular entertainers, vying for public favor with Bill 
Nye, Mark Twain, Robert J. Burdette, Eugene Field, and 
George W. Cable, with each of whom he held joint readings. 

Later honors accorded to Riley. It was a long time before 
Riley was recognized by the older and more cultured Eastern 
poets and critics, but he finally won praise from practically 




JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY 



344 History of American Literature 

all of them. Longfellow wrote him an encouraging letter 
early in his career; Lowell introduced him to a New York 
City audience as a true poet ; Holmes, Howells, Mark Twain, 
Joel Chandler Harris, Rudyard Kipling, and scores of others 
gave him high praise for touching the hearts of the people 
with his homely dialect pieces, his child poems, and his more 
serious and elevated lyrics. He was honored with degrees 
by several of our leading universities, and on October 7, 
igii, the schools of Indiana, and in 191 2, the school 
children of the whole country celebrated Riley's birthday 
with appropriate exercises. He died July 22, 19 16. 

William Vaughn Moody. William Vaughn Moody (1869- 
19 10) is as yet far from being a widely known poet, and per- 
haps he will never be a widely popular one; but like Sidney 
Lanier he will no. doubt have a steady growth of fame, and 
in the estimation of those who are prepared to recognize 
his artistic work in the subtle metrical harmonies and the 
deeper interpretative thought of the modem world, he will 
Surely take his place as one of our major American poets. 
He has done creditable work in literary criticism and the 
history of literature, and creative work in the pure lyric, in 
the poetic drama, and in the prose or acting drama; and 
g-lthough he died before reaching the full development of 
his genius, he accomplished enough to make him the most 
important of the younger poets of America. 

Moody s education. He was bom at Spencer, Indiana, 
July 8, 1869. About three years after his birth his parents 
moved to New Albany on the Ohio River. Here he grew 
into young manhood only to be doubly orphaned by the 
death of his mother when he was fifteen and of his father two 
years later. Left to his own resources at this immature age, 
he determined to secure for himself the best possible educa- 
tion. He taught school for a while near New Albany, and 
then went to New York to become an assistant teacher in an 
academy where he could himself obtain further instruction. 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 345 




WILLIAM VAUGHN MOODY 



He finally entered Harvard University and continued his 
undergraduate work for four years, and then went abroad as 
a tutor in a private family. 

Moody as teacher and poet. After a memorable year in 



346 History of American Literature 

Europe, he returned to Harv^ard and entered upon graduate 
work. Two years later, in 1894, he was graduated with the 
Master's degree, and the next year he became an instructor 
in EngHsh in the University of Chicago. With numerous 
vacation intermissions he continued in the work of teaching 
until 1902, when he permanently relinquished his professional 
position to devote himself to creative writing. During the 
years spent in Chicago he made several trips abroad and a 
number of bicycle and walking tours with friends in his 
own country. He loved outdoor life, and had an insatiable 
desire to mix with all classes of people and thus see life at 
all sorts of angles. His friendships were important to him, 
and no man perhaps ever had more devoted and intimate 
companions. In collaboration with Professor Robert M. 
Lovett, he prepared a textbook on the history of EngHsh 
literature; and the success of this volume, and of several 
other books which he edited for school use, enabled him to 
carry out his long-cherished design of giving up entirely 
his work in the classroom. 

Moody's better poems. He had been contributing poems 
to the best magazines since his Harvard University days, 
but it was not until toward the close of the nineties that he 
began to find his individual note. In 1900 he contributed 
to Scrihner's Magazine what he considered his best lyric, — 
namely, "Gloucester Moors." Among his other distinc- 
tive poems are "The Brute," a poem after the manner of 
Kipling, on machinery and its effects on modem life; "The 
Menagerie," a delightful Browning-like treatment of the 
theme of evolution from the point of view of a half-drunken 
man fresh from the menagerie of a circus; "On a Soldier 
Fallen in the Philippines" and "An Ode in Time of Hesita- 
tion," passionate outcries against American imperialism; 
and "The Daguerreotype," a wonderful tribute to the 
memory of his mother. Professor John M. Manly, of the 
University of Chicago, says that this last poem is "so 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 347 

deep of thought, so full of poignant feeling and clairvoyant 
vision, so wrought of passionate beauty that I know not 
where to look for another tribute from any poet to his 
mother that equals it." 

His poetic dramas. Moody's most ambitious work was 
his unfinished trilogy of poetic dramas, "The Fire-bringer, " 
"The Masque of Judgment," and "The Death of Eve." 
The last, which was to round out and complete the series, 
is left in fragmentary form, but the final theme is more or 
less adequately treated in the blank verse poem of the 
same title. There is a wonderful array of fine poetry here, 
but the number of readers who can fully appreciate the 
quality of Moody's art is unfortunately limited. Professor 
Manly says that Moody's poetry even in its simplest forms 
does not always reveal its meaning to the careless and casual 
reader, and most young readers will find these dramas to 
be a severe test upon their intellectual and interpretative 
powers. But such poetry has in it lasting qualities, and 
will always repay the student for his efforts to comprehend 
and appreciate it. Some of Moody's finest lyrics, too, are 
imbedded in these blank verse dramas. 

His acting plays. The third type of writing in which 
Moody succeeded admirably was that of the prose or acting 
drama. "The Great Divide" is perhaps the most original 
and successful native play produced on the American stage 
within the past quarter century. "The Faith Healer" was 
not so popular with the play going public, but it is a com- 
position of wonderful literary appeal, and if not so good as 
an acting play, is certainly worthy of remembrance as a 
literary drama. 

Moody's premature death: Professor Manly' s estimate. In 
spite of his outdoor habits and simple living Moody's 
health failed in 1909, and after a few months of happiness 
in his marriage with Harriet V. Brainerd, a woman whose 
companionship had meant much to him for several years 



348 History of American Literature 

preceding their marriage, he succumbed on October 17, 1910, 
cut off, as it were, in the full flush of his genius. Shortly- 
after Moody's death Professor Manly prepared the standard 
edition of his poems and dramas with an excellent introduc- 
tion, in which he admirably epitomizes the forceful qualities 
of this new poet's work in these words: "Moody's poetry, 
whether due to a direct impulse from life or suggested, 
like 'The Dialogue in Purgatory' and 'The Fountain' and 
'Thamuz,' by literature, is notable for its freedom from 
response to the obvious, the trivial, the merely pretty. 
This is, no doubt, one reason why, for all his rich and various 
melody, his wealth of fresh and vivid imagery, his modernity, 
his worship of beauty and love, his depth of spiritual emotion, 
he is not popular, is indeed hardly remembered by any 
except those to whom poetry is not an idle pastime, but a 
passion ; for the idler wants art in all its forms to be obvious 
and trivial and pretty. Moody's themes are often the 
common themes of poetry: love, patriotism, human suffering, 
God, and the soul. But he sees them ever from a new 
angle, he finds in them new significance, he mingle's them 
with unaccustomed but predestined associations. His vision 
and feeling are not simple, but interwoven with rich threads 
of reflection and transmuting emotion." 

OTHER WESTERN POETS 

Introductory Statement. Among the more important 
remaining Western poets are John Hay, author of Pike 
County Ballads; and Edward Rowland Sill, of California. 
The more modem group of the so-called "New Poetry" 
writers may be represented by Edgar Lee Masters and Carl 
Sandburg, both of Chicago; Vachel Lindsay, of Springfield, 
Illinois; and John Gould Fletcher, of Little Rock, Arkansas. 

John Hay. John Hay (183 8- 190 5) is probably thought of 
more frequently as a diplomat and a statesman than as a 
literary man, but the time may come when his fame will 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 349 

rest more surely on his literary productions than on his 
political achievements. He was bom and reared in Indiana, 
but he practiced law in Springfield, Illinois, the home of 
Abraham Lincoln, and he is thought of as belonging to the 
last-named state. President Lincoln appointed the young 
lawyer to be his private secretary in 1861, and the remainder 
of Hay's life was spent largely in public service of one kind 
or another. He was for a number of years attached to 
various diplomatic posts abroad, the most important being 
the ambassadorship to England under President McKinley. 
Finally Hay was called to America to become Secretary of 
State under President McKinley, and in this position he 
rendered very valuable services to the nation during the 
Boxer uprising in China. Hay's literary productions include 
Pike County Ballads (187 1); Castilian Days (1871), a sort 
of Spanish sketch book which grew out of its author's 
experiences in the diplomatic service at Madrid; and The 
Bread-Winners (1883), a novel which he published anony- 
mously for fear that his acknowledgment of its authorship 
might affect unfavorably his influence and service as a public 
man. The ballads were first published in some obscure 
Western paper, but they also appeared later in The New York 
Tribune, when Hay, for a brief period during his young man- 
hood, was on the editorial staff of that paper. They were 
rough-hewn dialect ballads dealing with the pioneer life 
of the Middle West. Their coarse and uncouth realism in 
thought and language, their embodiment of the humorous 
and the heroic ideals of the typical Westerner, the rawest 
of whom was said to hail from Pike County, Missouri, 
struck a quick response in the public esteem, and these 
six short ballads of John Hay's are today far more widely 
known than any of his purer and by him more highly es- 
teemed lyric verse. "Jim Bludso of the Prairie Belle" and 
"Little Breeches" are the most popular of the ballads, 
though the others are made from exactly the same bolt of 



350 History oj American Literature 

homespun and are almost equally good. Humor, sym- 
pathy, courage, independence, heroism are the chief char- 
actersties, though there is also a note of pathos. The story 
of the heroic pilot who held the nose of the burning " Prairie 
Belle," a Mississippi steamer, to the bank until all her 
passengers were safely landed, losing his own life in the 
event, has moved many a reader to tears. The pathos is 
evident in the last stanza. 

He weren't no saint, — but at jedgment 

I 'd run my chance with Jim, 
'Longside of some pious gentlemen 

That wouldn't shook hands with him. 
He seen his duty, a dead-sure thing, — 

And went for it thar and then ; 
And Christ ain't a-going to be too hard 

On a man that died for men. 

Edward Rowland Sill. Though bom in Massachusetts 
and educated at Yale, Edward Rowland Sill (1841-1887) 
moved to the Far West to engage in business (i 861-1866). 
He then went back to the East to study for the ministry, 
but became a teacher, locating first in an academy in Ohio 
and later in the Oakland High School in California, and then 
(1874-1882) he accepted the position of professor of English 
literature in the University of California at Berkeley. 
He finally retired and returned to Ohio to devote himself 
to literature but died within a few years. His successive 
shifts make him a kind of shuttle between the East and the 
West; but he did his best work in the West, so that he may 
fairly be called a Western writer. In fact, the greater part 
of his poetry is based on Western themes; in many of 
his shorter poems there are evidences of this in both 
title and treatment, and "The Hermitage," his longest 
poem, is a magnificent panorama of the beautiful scenery 
of coast and mountain and stream and lake in the wonder- 
land of the West. 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 351 

Let me arise, and away 

To the land that guards the dying day, 

Whose burning tear, the evening-star, 

Drops silently to the wave afar; 

The land where summers never cease 

Their sunny psalm of light and peace. 

Whose moonlight, poured for years untold. 

Has drifted down in dust of gold; 

Whose morning splendors, fallen in showers, 

Leave ceaseless sunrise in the flowers. 

The purity and sweetness of Sill's language, the sureness 
and sanity of his moral insight, and the epigrammatic 
quality of some of his best poems, notably "The Fool's 
Prayer," will undoubtedly give long Hfe to his work. He 
died when he was just reaching his matiuity as a poet, and 
while his achievement is notable even as it is, there is little 
doubt but that, had he lived, Sill would have given the world 
a still greater body of worthy poetry. His work should be 
better known than it is. Such poems as "The Fool's 
Prayer," "Opportunity," "The Contrast," "Life," "On 
Second Thought," "Tempted" will prove to be extremely 
stimulating and inspiring to thoughtful young readers as 
well as to older ones. We reproduce one of these epigram- 
matic poems as well worth committing to memory. 

LIFE 
Forenoon and afternoon and night, — Forenoon, 
And afternoon, and night, — Forenoon, and — what! 
The empty song repeats itself. No more? 
Yea, that is Life: make this forenoon sublime. 
This afternoon a psalm, this night a prayer. 
And Time is conquered, and thy crown is won. 

Minor poets. We can only give the names of a few of 
the ntunerous minor poets of the West: J. J. Piatt (183 5-), 
of Indiana, associated with W. D. Howells in their first 
volume, Poems oj Two Friends (i860) and the author of 
several other volumes of verse; Maurice Thompson (1844- 
1901), of Indiana, author of many lyrics, but better known 



352 



History of American Literature 



as a novelist; Will Carleton (1845-1912), of Michigan, 
author of many popular and sentimental ballads of no very- 
high literary value, sueh as "Betsy and I Are Out" and 
"Over the Hill to the Poor House"; John Vance Cheney 
(1848-) bom in the state of New York, but associated with 
the Pacific slope, writer of excellent lyric verse; Edwin 
Markham (185 2-), of Oregon, famous as the author of 




After the painting by Jean Francois Millet 
THE MAN WITH THE HOE 



"The Man with the Hoe"; Edith M. Thomas (1854-), of 
Ohio, writer of first-rate lyric verse; Paul Laurence Dunbar 
(187 2-1 906), the negro poet, born and reared in Ohio and 
educated finally at Harvard University, author of many 
humorous and pathetic negro dialect and pure English 
lyrics; and Sara Teasdale (1884-) (Mrs. Ernst B. Filsinger 
since 1914), of St. Louis, one of the most skilful and artistic 
of recent Ivrists, author of Sonnets to Duse and Other Poems 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 353 

(1907), Helen of Troy and Other Poems (191 1), Rivers to the 
Sea (19 1 5), and Love Poems (191 7), this last being awarded 
the prize as the best original poetical contribution for the 
year 19 17. 

Edwin Markham's "The Man with the Hoe." Perhaps 
of all these Edwin Markham has reached the widest pubHc. 
His style at its best is somewhat rhetorical and his lines 
sometimes become rather fiat and prosy, especially when 
he attempts to convey his moral and socialistic teachings 
through conventional poetical mediums.. "The Man with 
the Hoe," inspired by Millet's famous picture of this title, 
is the best example of Markham's highly emotional and 
rhetorical verse. In its impassioned interpretation of the 
cause of the laboring classes this poem has been hailed as 
"the battle-cry of the next thousand years." 

THE MAN WITH THE HOE 
Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans 
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground, 
The emptiness of ages in his face. 
And on his back the burden of the world. 
Who made him dead to rapture and despair, 
A thing that grieves not and that never hopes, 
Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox? 
Who loosened and let down this brutal jaw? 
Whose was the hand that slanted back this brow? 
Whose breath blew out the light within this brain? 

Is this the Thing the Lord God made and gave 

To have dominion over sea and land ; 

To trace the stars and search the heavens for power; 

To feel the passion of Eternity? 

Is this the Dream He dreamed who shaped the suns 

And marked their ways upon the ancient deep? 

Down all the stretch of Hell to its last gulf 

There is no shape more terrible than this — 

More tongued with censure of the world's blind greed — 

More filled with signs and portents for the soul — 

More fraught with menace to the universe. 



354 History of American Literature 

What gulfs between him and the seraphim! 
Slave of the wheel of labor, what to him 
Are Plato and the swing of Pleiades? 
What the long reaches of the peaks of song, 
The rift of dawn, the reddening of the rose? 
Through this dread shape the suffering ages look; 
Time's tragedy is in that aching stoop; 
Through this dread shape humanity betrayed, 
Plundered, profaned and disinherited, 
Cries protest to the Judges of the World, 
A protest that is also prophecy. 

O masters, lords and rulers in all lands. 

Is this the handiwork you give to God, 

This monstrous thing distorted and soul-quenched? 

How will you ever straighten up this shape; 

Touch it again with immortality; 

Give back the upward looking and the light; 

Rebuild in it the music and the dream; 

Make right the immemorial infamies, 

Perfidious wrongs, immedicable woes? 

O masters, lords, and rulers in all lands, 
How will the Future reckon with this Man? 
How answer his brute question in that hour 
When whirlwinds of rebellion shake the world? 
How will it be with kingdoms and with kings — 
With those who shaped him to the thing he is — 
When this dumb Terror shall reply to God, 
After the silence of the centuries? 



THE NEW POETRY IN THE WEST 

Edgar Lee Masters. Among the modem or "New 
Poetry" poets Edgar Lee Masters (1869-) is, in the opinion 
of most critics, the most powerful. A descendant of an 
old Virginia family of the pioneering type on his father's 
side and from Puritan stock on his mother's, he was born 
in Kansas and brought at an early age into Illinois. After 
one year at college he began to prepare himself for the 
practice of law by studying in his father's law office at 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 



355 




EDGAR LEE MASTERS 

Lewiston, Illinois, and then moved to Chicago to improve 
his fortunes. He has confessed that the music of Burns and 
Shelley kept running through his brain, and he could not 
resist the impulse to write poetry. In fact, he wrote several 
hundreds of poems in the ordinary verse forms before he 
came to write in the new form known as free- verse. He 



356 History of American Literature 

felt that he needed some new medium in which to present 
the dead monotony and crass reaHsm of Middle Western 
village Hfe. He makes Petit, the Spoon River poet, confess 
that he saw 

Life all around me here in the village: 
Tragedy, comedy, valor and truth, 
Courage, constancy, heroism, failure — 
All in the loom, and oh what patterns! 

and that he (Petit) was utterly unable to express all this in 
the conventional verse forms: 

Seeds in a dry pod, tick, tick, tick. 
Tick, tick, tick, what little iambics. 
While Homer and Whitman roared in the pines? 

It was in Poetry, a Magazine of Verse, founded at Chicago 
in ig 1 1, by Harriet Monroe, that Mr. Masters discovered the 
new vers libre, or free-verse, and he recognized at once 
that it was exactly the medium which he needed. Williatn 
Marion Reedy, of St. Louis, urged him to throw off all 
conventions and write something strictly American in form 
and content, and Mr. Masters began to strike off and 
publish in Reedy' s Mirror (St. Louis) those brilHant char- 
acter sketches for which he has since become famous. In 
1915 he collected these unique poems under the title of 
Spoon River Anthology. It is perhaps not too much to say 
that the book created a sensation in Hterary circles. No 
book of poetry since Longfellow's Voices of the Night has 
had so wide a circulation, and none since Walt Whitman's 
Leaves of Grass has been more vigorously stimulating or 
shown more originality. Everybody who is interested in 
recent literature has read and talked about Spoon River 
Anthology. Spoon River is the fictitious name of a Middle 
Western town, and the Anthology is supposed to be a 
collection of epitaphs written upon the lives of the inhabi- 
tants who lie buried in the cemetery. In most instances 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 357 

the dead persons are supposed to speak the real truth 
about themselves, and thus the author is permitted to 
reveal the inner secrets of the whole fabric of life about 
him. Not only are the individuals portrayed in bold outline 
and crass realism, but the life of the entire village is gradu- 
ally reproduced and clearly revealed. There are a few family 
groups and related portraits, and there is frequent allusion 
reaching over from one portrait to another; and when all 
of the more than two hundred persons are before us, we 
suddenly realize that we have a complete cross section of 
society as it exists in this Middle Western town of Spoon 
River. There is no story, no hero, no heroine, no major 
characters and minor characters, but just the unvarnished 
truth about each member of the village society; and lo, 
when we have read all the epitaphs, we have a complete pict- 
ure of the village before us. There has been some objection 
to the book because in it Mr. Masters seems to paint too 
dark a picture. He reveals the ugly side of American life 
in all its coarseness, sensuality, sordidness, and hypocrisy. 
He seems to over-emphasize the bad and to say too little 
about the good. There is truth in his realistic presentation, 
to be sure, but there is another and a better side to human 
nature, and those who will read on to the end of Spoon 
River Anthology will find that Mr. Masters realizes this. 
Toward the close of his book particularly he portrays an 
unselfish idealism and a genuine belief in the essential 
purity and aspiration of American life and human nature 
at large. He is often frank even to vulgarity and brutality, 
but underlying all his apparent cynicism is a spirit of hopeful 
optimism and sincere sympathy. On the whole Spoon 
River Anthology is composed of too strong meat for young 
readers, but now and then a pure heart speaks in sincere 
accents that young readers will enjoy. Take the following 
picture of the old maid school teacher, supposed to be 
modeled on the poet's own early teacher: 



35S History of American Literature 

EMILY SPARKS 
Where is my boy, my boy — 
In what far part of the world? 
The boy I loved best of all in the school? — 
I, the teacher, the old maid, the virgin heart. 
Who made them all my children. 
Did I know my boy aright. 
Thinking of him as spirit aflame, 
Active, ever aspiring? 

Oh, boy, boy, for whom I prayed and prayed 
In many a watchful hour at night. 

Do you remember the letter I wrote you 

Of the beautiful love of Christ? 

And whether you ever took it or not. 

My boy, wherever you are. 

Work for your soul's sake. 

That all the clay of you, all of the dross of you, 

May yield to the fire of you. 

Till the fire is nothing but light ! 

Nothing but light! 

And "Reuben Pantier" answers, beginning his story thus: 

Well, Emily Sparks, your prayers were not wasted. 

Your love was not all in vain. 

I owe whatever I was in life 

To your hope that would not give me up, 

To your love that saw me still as good. 

In his latest books. The Great Valley (19 17) and Toward 
the Gulf (19 18), Mr. Masters has attempted, with a large 
measure of success, to do for the Central West, that is, "the 
great valley" of the Mississippi as it sweeps "toward the 
Gulf," what he did for a single town of this same section 
in Spoon River Anthology. He has drunk deeply of the pure 
stream of democracy as it flowed through Abraham Lincoln 
and Walt Whitman, and as a result his work may be called 
a "true epic of American life." 

Carl Sandburg. Carl Sandburg (1878-) reminds one 
rather strongly of Walt Whitman. He was born of Swedish 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 359 

ancestry in Galesburg, Illinois, and has had a varied experi- 
ence in many parts of the West, working at many jobs and 
being thrown intimately with many sorts of toilers. He 
succeeded in getting a fairly good education, and he has 
been connected with several of the more recent socialistic 
movements in Wisconsin and other states. He is the poet 
of . Chicago in particular, just as Walt Whitman was of 
Mannahatta, or New York. He is also the poet of social 
democracy. His volume called Chicago Poems (19 16) is 
his chief contribution thus far to the so-called new poetry 
in the free-verse forms. The opening poem in this volume, 
"Chicago," is his best known single production. This 
poem was first printed in Poetry, a Magazine of Verse, in 
1 91 4, and was awarded a prize of $200 as the best American 
poem of the year. Its lines will remind the student at 
once of Walt Whitman, but there is something new and 
fresh here also; the poem will also afford soine idea of 
Mr. Sandb\u:g's terrific strength and imaginative power. 

CHICAGO 
Hog Butcher for the World, 
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, 

Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler; 
Stormy, husky, brawling, 
City of the big shoulders : 
They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your 

painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys. 
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer ; Yes, it is true I have 

seen the gunmen kill and go free to kill again. 
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of 

women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger. 
And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this 

my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them: 
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be 

alive and coarse and strong and cunning. 
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a 

tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities; 
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage 

pitted against the wilderness, 



360 History of American Literature 

Bareheaded, 
Shoveling, 
Wrecking, 
Planning, 

Building, breaking, rebuilding. 
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth. 
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs, 
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle, 
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his 
ribs the heart of the people, 
Laughing ! 
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, 
sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of 
Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation. 

Cornhuskers (19 18), Mr. Sandburg's latest book, is redolent 
of country and town of the great corn-growing section. 
It is composed in the same Whitman-like type of free verse 
which made Chicago Poems notable. "Prairie," the opening 
poem, is a long series of flash-light pictures of rural and 
urban life in the great Middle West, and practically every 
other poem in the volume shouts or sings or whispers some 
phase of the throbbing life which Mr. Sandburg knows so 
intimately and loves so sincerely. 

Vachel Lindsay. Another strikingly unconventional 
Western poet is Nicholas Vachel Lindsay (1879-), who 
was born in Springfield, Illinois, educated in the high school 
there and at Hiram College in Ohio, and later studied art 
at the Chicago Art Institute and the New York School of 
Art. After doing some lecturing in the interests of the 
Anti-Saloon League for the Y. M. C. A. settlement work in 
New York, he returned to Illinois and spent a year or two 
lecturing in the interests of the Anti-Saloon League. Then 
in 1909 he began his famous tramp from Illinois to New 
Mexico, preaching, as he said, "the gospel of beauty" along 
the way. He sold copies of his own verses, Rhymes to he 
Traded for Bread (19 12), and recited them wherever he could 
gather an audience. Later he recorded his experiences 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 361 

in a prose voltime interspersed with poems, which he called 
Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty (1914). 
He repeated this experiment in other tramping excursions. 
Lindsay first attracted wide attention by his poem called 
"General William Booth Enters Heaven," which appeared 
in Poetry, A Magazine of Verse, January, 19 13, and was 
published in a volume with other poems in 19 14. His 
second volume of poetry, The Congo and Other Poems, was 
published in 19 15. He attempts to interpret American life, 
particularly in the great cities and in the rural sections of 
the Middle West, from the point of view of the average 
citizen rather than from that of the educated critic. Poems 
like "The Congo," representing negro life; "The Fireman's 
Ball," and "A Rhyme about an Electrical Advertising 
Sign" come out of his experiences in the cities, while "The 
Santa Fe Trail" and "An Indian Summer Da}^ on the 
Prairie" are the product of his tramps in the West. The 
most striking peculiarity of Lindsay's poems is his marginal 
glosses or notes, in which he tells the reader exactly how to 
read or recite the verses, for he believes poetry for the 
people should be recited or sung rather than merely silently 
read. He conceives his setting exactly as a dramatist 
would do, and gives full elocutionary or stage directions to 
accompany the oral rendition. He is said to be successful 
in reciting his own productions, and of course he wants 
others to read his poems exactly as he has conceived them. 
Besides the work already mentioned, Lindsay has written 
some good religious lyrics, such as "I Heard Immanuel 
Singing," and some quaint children's poems. Perhaps 
Lindsay will be remembered chiefly as an|oddity or freak 
in the modem poetical movement, but there is no use deny- 
ing the fact that he is possessed of an unusual imagination, 
and that he has done some rather unique things in recitative 
verse forms. 

John Gould Fletcher. John Gould Fletcher (1886-), of 

23 



362 History of American Literature 

Little Rock, Arkansas, a graduate of Phillips Academy and 
a student at Harvard, and for some years thereafter a 
resident of London and other European cities, belongs with 
the imagists of England and New England rather than with 
the more virile representatives of the "New Poetry" of the 
West. He draws his inspiration from his own personal 
experiences, however, as is clearly shown by the series of 
twenty-five impressionistic poems concerning his life in his 
father's home at Little Rock, all of which are gathered 
under the larger title of "The Ghosts of an Old House" in 
Goblins and Pagodas. Mr. Fletcher has a clear grasp of the 
latest theories of the "New Poetry." He goes about his 
work as a conscious artist, knowing what effects he wishes 
to bring out and having a marvelous command of the 
language and imagery necessary to produce these effects. 
He has expressed his advanced views rather fully and 
clearly in the prefaces of his three latest volumes: Irradia- 
tions — Sand and Spray (1915), Goblins and Pagodas (1916), 
and Japanese Prints (19 17). The following picture of trees' 
in a wind storm will give a good idea of Mr. Fletcher's 
wonderfully rich and vivid diction and his strikingly fanci- 
ful imagination. 

IRRADIATIONS 

The trees, like great jade elephants, 

Chained, stamp and shake 'neath the gadflies of the breeze; 

The trees lunge and plunge, unruly elephants: 

The clouds are their crimson howdah-canopies, 

The sunlight glints like the golden robe of a Shah. 

Would I were tossed on the wrinkled backs of those trees. 

MINOR WESTERN WRITERS OF FICTION 

The fiction writers classified. There are so many popular 
and promising Western novelists and short-story writers- 
that it will be necessary to select just a few of them as 
typical. Mark Twain and Bret Harte have already been 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 363 

treated above as major writers. After these we may take 
General Lew Wallace, Edward Eggleston, Hamlin Garland, 
Frank Norris, and Winston Churchill for brief treatment, 
and content ourselves with a bare catalogue of the other 
novelists and story writers, together with a few of their 
most noteworthy productions. 

Lew Wallace. General Lew Wallace (1827-1905), of 
Indiana, first earned fame as a soldier, taking part in both 
the War with Mexico and the Civil War, where he finally 
rose to the rank of general. Just before the outbreak of 
the War with Mexico, while he was studying for admission 
to the bar at Indianapolis, Wallace read Prescott's Conquest 
of Mexico and was at once fired with the ambition to write a 
historical novel based on the romantic background of the 
Spanish conquest of the Aztecs. Later his own personal 
experiences in Mexico added to his equipment for the task, 
but it was not until long after the Civil War that he finally 
finished his first novel. The Fair God, a Tale of the Conquest 
of Mexico (1873). This book , th ough fairly well planned and 
executed, attracted but little attention until after the appear- 
ance of its author's amazingly popular religious romance, 
Ben Hur, a Tale of the Christ (1880). This last is said to 
have been the most widely read novel that had appeared 
since Uncle Tom's Cabin swept the country in 1852. It had 
in it much to commend it to the American public: it was 
thoroughly reverent and orthodox in its attitude toward the 
Christ; it was enthusiastically, vividly, and dramatically 
written; and it satisfied all the demands for an intensely 
exciting romance as well as for historical information and 
moral stimulus. Critics have spoken in a somewhat slight- 
ing tone of the lack of artistic merit in style and structure, of 
the melodramatic atmosphere, and of the pietistic or moral 
leanings of the book, but such criticism has had little effect 
in deterring thousands of eager readers from turning again 
and again to the pages of the romance, and other thousands 



364 History of American Literature 

of pleased spectators from attending the elaborate drama- 
tizations of the novel. The Prince of India, or Why 
Constantinople Fell (1893), did not satisfy the public so well 
as Ben Hur had done. In none of his novels does General 
Wallace represent American life. He was fascinated by 
foreign historical themes with a large romantic background, 
and it must be said that he was hardly possessed of sufficient 
imaginative power to fuse these historical and romantic 
elements into really great masterpieces. His position as 
a writer, then, cannot finally be a high one, but he deserves 
remembrance as one of the many American novelists who 
attracted very wide interest with their popular historical 
romances in the last decades of the nineteenth century. 

Edward Eggleston. Edward Eggleston (1837-1902) will 
probably be remembered more for his accurate portrayal 
of life in the Middle West, particularly in Indiana and 
Minnesota, than for his purely literary excellence. A 
descendant of a good Virginia family, he was born in Indiana, 
was shifted about from place to place after the early death of 
his parents, entered the Methodist ministry as a circuit 
rider when he was nineteen, and gradually educated himself 
by his voracious habit of reading history, biography, and 
general literature. During all his early life he studied at 
first hand the Hoosier customs and types of character which 
he was to use so effectively in his later realistic novels. 
The Hoosier Schoolmaster (187 1), first published serially in 
the Hearth and Home, was widely read. It is not a strong 
book when examined from a purely artistic viewpoint, but 
because of its humor, its coarse realism, and its sincere 
humanity and large charity, it is irresistibly appealing and 
universally popular, particularly among young readers. 
Another book in the same vein is The Hoosier Schoolboy 
(1883). The End of the World, a Love Story (1872) is centered 
around the sect of " Millerites, " who taught, about 1870, 
that the end of the world was at hand. The scene of The 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 365 

Mystery of Metropolisville (1873) is laid in Minnesota, and 
is the result of the author's observations of life in that state 
during the several years of his lesidence there. The Cir- 
cuit Rider, a Tale of the Heroic Age (1874), deals with the 
history of Methodism in the Middle West in the first quarter 
of the nineteenth century. This book is looked upon 
almost as an authentic historic document, so close to fact as 
revealed by history and by his own personal experiences in 
later years has the novelist kept. In this book Eggleston 
reached his highest power. He has portrayed the early 
life in the West with a vividness that makes it very real to 
his readers, and he has thus preserved for us the true historic 
background out of which came such characters as Presidents 
William Henry Harrison and Abraham Lincoln. In one of 
Eggleston's later works, The Graysons, a Story of Illinois 
(1888), a realistic picture of pioneer life, Abraham Lincoln 
actually appears as one of the characters. During his 
later years Eggleston became a writer of popular histories, 
and he was also connected editorially with several religious 
and literary journals, notably with The New York 
Independent. 

Hamlin Garland. In Hamlin Garland (i860-) we find 
the hard realism of the Middle West farm life voicing itself. 
He knows his background thoroughly, and he portrays it 
vividly. The offspring of parents who had the regular 
Western fever for migrating, he was born in Wisconsin and 
carried along with the family in their wanderings from 
point to point until they settled somewhat more permanently 
in Iowa. He managed to acquire a fairly good education, 
taught school in several Western states, and later in Massa- 
chusetts. Finally he turned his hand to writing Western 
stories and collected them later in Main-Traveled Roads: 
Six Mississippi Valley Stories (189 1), and Prairie Folks: 
or Pioneer Life on the Western Prairies in Nine Stories (1892). 
He savs the entire series was the result of a siunmer vacation 



366 History of American Literature 

visit to his old home in Iowa, to his father's farm in Dakota, 
and to his birthplace in Wisconsin. At the time he made 
this visit he was living in Boston, and he confesses that the 
return to the scenes of his boyhood started him upon a 
series of stories delineative of farm and village life as he knew 
it and had lived it. Thus these stories become a sort of 
historical transcript of Garland's own experiences, and as 
such they are not only interesting narratives, but really 
true and human presentations of Western farm life in the 
later decades of the nineteenth century. Mr. Garland has 
written many longer stories also, but none of them is quite 
so good in its interpretation of Western life as are his short 
stories. Rose of Butcher's Coolly (1895) and The Eagle's 
Heart (1900) may be mentioned as typical Western novels. 
One of the most valuable of all Mr. Garland's books is his 
autobiography, A Son of the Middle Border (191 7). It gives 
a truthful and satisfying picture of life in the Middle and 
Far West — of the whole of America, in fact — and at the 
same time it is as entertaining as a novel. 

Frank Norris. Frank Norris (1870-1902) represents more 
particularly the Far West, but he is also frequently associated 
with the Middle West. He was born in Chicago, educated in 
San Francisco High School and the University of California, 
studied at Harvard, and then went abroad to study art at 
Paris. Later he became special correspondent and editor 
of San Francisco papers, and during the Spanish-American 
War he did some good magazine work. He then made 
himself noted as the author of fiction of the most glaringly 
realistic type. He held the extreme view that the novelist 
should tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the 
truth, no matter how revolting it might be. McTeague: 
A Story of San Francisco (1899) illustrates this strong type 
of realism. But Norris's greatest effort was in the three 
novels which he planned to be what he called "an epic of the 
wheat." These novels when completed were intended to 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 367 

portray the real facts about the complex industrial and 
social life of America as it revolved around the most impor- 
tant food product of the world. Norris explained his piirpose 
in the preface to the second novel. He said, "These novels, 
while forming a series, will be in no way connected with 
each other save by their relation to (i) the production, 
{2) the distribution, (3) the consumption of American wheat. 
When complete they will form the story of a crop of wheat 
from the time of its sowing as seed in California to the time 
of its consumption as bread in a village of Western Europe. " 
The novelist completed only The Octopus, a Story of Cali- 
fornia (1901), and The Pit, a Story of Chicago (1902). The 
third novel he intended to call The Wolf, proposing to make 
the main incident center about a famine in some Etiropean 
community. The Octopus is really an allegory dealing with 
the railroad trust, which, like a giant octopus, the author 
conceives to have its tentacles stretched everywhere over 
the land. He describes it as "the leviathan with tentacles 
of steel clutching into the soil, the soulless Force, the iron- 
hearted Power, the Monster, the Colossus, the Octopus." 
The Pit is the story of a speculation or comer in the Chicago 
wheat exchange. These two stories are powerfully written, 
and had Norris lived to complete the trilogy, he would 
undoubtedly have rounded out his plan so as to have made 
this sequence one of the most remarkably comprehensive 
works of modern fiction. Even as it stands his effort has 
a magnificent sweep and a fundamental and powerful art 
appeal. 

Winston Churchill. It is difficult to decide whether 
Winston Spencer Churchill (187 1-) should be classed with 
the Western or the New England group of novelists. He 
was bom in St. Louis, Missouri, educated at an academy 
in that city and at the United States Naval Academy at 
Annapolis, spent several years in general journalistic work 
in New York, and finally settled permanently in the artists' 



j68 History of American Literature 

colony at Cornish, New Hampshire, just across the Con- 
necticut river from the town of Windsor, Vermont. Later 
he entered politics in New Hampshire and became thoroughly 
identified with that state. The scenes of some of his novels 
are laid in the West, but the political and social problem 
novels of his recent years deal mainly with conditions in the 
East. All his work, however, is more or less general and 
national rather than local in character, and on the whole 
he seems to belong with the group of Western writers who 
have attempted to express in their novels the broad national 
or democratic ideal known as Americanism. His three 
important historical novels are Richard Carvel (1899), the 
scene of which is laid principally in Maryland covering the 
whole of the Revolutionary period; The Crisis (1901), 
which opens in St. Louis just before the Civil War and 
covers the whole of that critical period in our history, intro- 
ducing Abraham Lincoln in a rather large way; and The 
Crossing (1904), a picturesque narrative of "the crossing of 
the Alleghanies" by the early pioneers, such as Daniel 
Boone and his companions, the development of the move- 
ment for westward expansion through the Louisiana Pur- 
chase, and the exploring expedition of Lewis and Clarke. 
Of his other works two are political novels dealing with , 
conditions in New Hampshire: Coniston (1906) portraying 
the career of Jethro Bass, a typical political boss during 
the administration of President Grant; and Mr. Crewe's 
Career (1908), a continuation of the same theme, a search- 
ing satire on railroad domination of state politics. Two of 
his later works are American social studies, turning largely 
on marriage and business problems: A Modern Chronicle 
(19 10), a love story opening in St. Louis and moving on 
to New York and Virginia, then back to the starting point ; 
A Far Country (191 5), a highly generalized study of the 
rise of big business methods at the end of the nineteenth 
century. Finally, The Inside oj the Cup (1913) deals in a 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 3 69' 

rather frank and startling way with the inner social workings 
of a rich twentieth-century American church. It will be 
observed that each of these novels takes up some big theme, 
and it will be found that the treatment is broad and epic 
in character rather than narrow and personal. An attempt 
is made to portray primarily some great historical, political, 
or social problem, and the characters and personal narrative 
are made to elucidate the theme. The characters are well 
drawn and peculiarly attractive as human beings, it is true, 
and the reader becomes intensely interested in their fortunes 
as the story progresses; but they seem to be merely a part 
of the greater social or national movement which the author 
portrays as sweeping them on or engulfing them in its 
stream. The first three of Churchill's novels have been 
called historical, but in truth all his books may be called 
historical or interpretative of American life in a chronological 
sequence from the Revolution to present times. These 
eight novels are all well worth reading, for Churchill is a 
careful and painstaking workman both in the collect- 
ing and marshaling of his facts and in his literary style. 
Perhaps younger readers should be content at first to take 
up the three earlier novels in their chronological order — 
Richard Carvel, The Crossing, The Crisis. The first and 
last of these are connected by the interesting device of 
making the heroine of the last, Virginia Carvel, to appear 
as the great-great-granddaughter of the hero of the first. 

Western women story writers. Among the women 
novelists of the West, the following are the most notable: 
Helen Hunt Jackson (1831-1885,)^ poet and novelist, author 
of Ramona (1884), a strong story intended to arouse sym- 
pathy for the mistreated Indian, as Uncle Tom's Cabin had 
previously done for the Southern negro; Mrs. Mary Hartwell 
Catherwood (1847-1902), of Ohio, writer of romantic stories 

1 Miss Helen Maria Fiske, born in Amherst, Massachusetts, was first 
married to Captain Hunt and frequently signed her early works "H. H." 
She later married a Mr. Jackson of Colorado. 



37° History of American Literature 

of Indian life in the earlier period of French settlements in 
Canada and the Middle West, such as The Romance of 
Bollard (1889), Old Kaskaskia (1893),' Lazarre (1901); 
Mary Hallock Foote (1847-), writer of stories dealing with 
primitive life in the West, such as The Led Horse Claim 
(1883), Coeur d' Alene (1894); Octave Thanet (1850-), in 
real life Alice French, author of sympathetic and artistic 
short stories revealing life in Iowa and Arkansas, as in 
Knitters in the Sun (1887), Stories of a Western Town (1893), 
The Heart of Toil (1898); Gertrude Atherton (1857-), of 
San Francisco, writer of novels dealing with life in the 
West, such as The Calif ornians (1898), and also with general 
social and political life in the East, a^ in Patience Spar- 
hawk (1897) and Senator North (1900), treating respectively 
of New York and Washington society, and The Conqueror 
(1902), a historical romance with Alexander Hamilton 
as the chief figure; Dorothy Canfield (1879-), Mrs. J. R. 
Fisher, born in Kansas and educated in Ohio State and 
Colimibia Universities, author of The Squirrel Cage (19 12), 
a novel which attacks the senseless education of girls to 
physical invalidism, and The Bent Twig (19 15), an excellent 
study of life in a state university of the Middle West; 
and Kathleen Norris (1880-), of San Francisco, writer of 
realistic novels of present-day social life, such as Mother 
(191 1) and The Heart of Rachel (19 16). 

Other Western novelists. The popular Western novelists 
include Maurice Thompson (1844-1901), of Indiana, poet, 
essayist, and novelist, author of Alice of Old Vincennes 
(1901), a stirring tale of Revolutionary times and one of the 
most widely read novels of its decade; Henry Blake Fuller 
(185 7-), of Chicago, author of realistic present-day studies 
in city life, as in The Cliff Dwellers (1893), With the Proces- 
sion (1895); Frederic Remington (1861-1909), painter of 
Western pictures and writer of Western short stories, as 
in Crooked Trails (1898), Men with the Bark On (1900); 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 371 

William Allen White (1868-), of Kansas, author of The 
Court of Boyville (1899), a sequence of delightfully human 
and playfully humorous stories of boy life in the Middle 
West, and A Certain Rich Man (1909), a novel dealing with 
the rapid growth of a Western town and the making of a 
modem millionaire; Robert Herri ck (1868-), a professor in 
the University of Chicago, author of many searching and 
somewhat pessimistic studies in social life, particularly on 
the marriage problem, such as The Common Lot (1904), 
Together (1908); Charles D. Stewart (1868-), of Wisconsin, 
whose The Fugitive Blacksmith (1905) and Partners of 
Providence (1907), portray Western life on plain and river 
with both art and hiimor; Stewart Edward White (1873-), 
of Michigan, portrayer of Western mining and mountaineer 
types, as in The Claim Jumpers (1901), The Blazed Trail 
(1902); Jack London (1876-1916), of San Francisco, writer 
of realistic stories of outdoor adventure and animal life, as 
in The Call of the Wild (1903), The Sea Wolf (1904), White 
Fang (1907); and Newton Booth Tarkington (1869-), of 
Indiana, one of the best of the modem popular novelists. 
He is the author of The Gentleman from Indiana (1899), a 
study of Hoosier character; Monsieur Beaucaire (1900) a 
romantic story laid in England a century or more ago; The 
Two Vanrevels (1902), a story of mistaken identity, the 
scene being laid in the Middle West of the mid-nineteenth 
century; Cherry (1903), a sprightly Revolutionary romance; 
The Turmoil (19 15), his most ambitious work, a searching 
study of modem business methods in a big city; Penrod 
(19 14), and Penrod and Sam (19 16), short stories presenting 
a live American boy of twelve with his companions; 
Seventeen (19 16), a delightful picture of an American youth 
at the impressionable age of seventeen; and The Magnif- 
icent Amber sons (19 18), his latest work, a story of a 
wealthy American family in a present-day midland town. 



372 History of American Literature 

TEXAS WRITERS 

Texas poets. Every state in the Union has its poets and 
prose writers of local fame, and Texas naturally has her 
share of such writers. Being one of the last of the border 
states to be settled, Texas has had within her bounds many 
writers who were born in other parts of the country. While 
a number of the earlier settlers were highly esteemed as 
orators and prose writers, only one, namely, President 
Mirabeau B. Lamar (i 798-1859), is now remembered as a 
poet, and he is known primarily as the author of a single 
lyric, "The Daughter of Mendoza."^ Here may also be 
mentioned Mrs. Mollie Moore Davis (1847-1909), bom in 
Alabama but reared in Texas, author of Minding the Gap 
and Other Poems (1868) and a number of novels which were 
popular in their brief day. Some of the better known later 
Texas poets are William Lawrence Chittenden (186 2-), who 
was born in New Jersey but who found his poetical inspira- 
tion in the descriptions of ranch life in west Texas, as is 
well established by such poems as ' ' The Cowboys' Christmas 
Ball" and "Old Fort Phantom Hill" in Ranch Verses (1893); 
Leonard Doughty (18 — ), of San Antonio, who has written 
a number of lyrics of fine quality, "The Vagabond" pub- 
lished in Collier's Weekly being one of his best single poems; 
Walter Flavius McCaleb (18 — ), formerly of Dallas but now 
of New York, the author of Winnowings oj the Wind (19 10), 
a small volume of songs and sonnets which show taste and 
metrical skill; Hilton Ross Greer (1878-), now editorial 
writer on The Dallas Evening Journal, author of Sun-Gleams 
and Gossamers (1904), The Spider and Other Poems (1906), 
and A Prairie Prayer and Other Poems (191 2), works which 
show decided talent in lyrical verse; Mrs. Karle Wilson 
Baker (1879-) ; of Nacogdoches, known to the readers of the 
best present-day magazines as Charlotte Wilson, writer of 

1 See Payne's Southern Ltierary Readings for an analysis of this poem, 
and also for selections from Chittenden, Greer, Young, and O. Henry. 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 373 

exquisitely wrought lyrics, the best of which have been col- 
lected in the volume Bhie Smoke (19 19; John P. Sjolander 
(1851-), a native of Sweden, formerly a contributor to The 
Galveston News; and Judd Mortimer Lewis (186 7-), bom in 
Fulton, New York, and educated in Cleveland, Ohio, but 
since 1900 a member of the staff of The Houston Post and a 
contributor of verse to the popular magazines, his poems 
being collected in Sing the South (1905), Lilts 0' Love (1906), 
The Old Wash Place (19 12), Toddle-Town Trails (1914), and 
Christmas Days (19 17). Perhaps the book of widest general 
interest that has come from Texas is John Avery Lomax's 
collection of native ballads in his Cowboy Songs and Other 
Frontier Ballads (19 10); and doubtless his new collection, 
Poetry of the Cow Camp and Cattle Trail (19 19), will prove 
equally popular. 

Texas story writers. To this brief list of Texas poets 
may be added the names of two short-story writers who 
have made Texas life and scene familiar to modern magazine 
readers, namely, O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) ^ bom 
in North Carolina but for almost twenty years a resident of 
Texas; and George Pattullo (1882-), born in Canada and 
widely traveled, but in love with Texas life on ranch and 
farm, as is indicated in his two volumes of short stories, 
Untamed^ (ig 11) and The Sheriff of Badger (19 12), and in 
many other short stories appearing in The Saturday Evening 
Post and the popular magazines. - 



iSee the fuller treatment of O. Henry, pp. 305-3I2. 

2See Professor D. F Eagleton's Writer;, and Writings of Texas, Broadway 
Publishing Company, New York. 1913. 



374 History of American Literature 

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHIES 
SUITABLE FOR HIGH-SCHOOL LIBRARIES AND 
OUTSIDE READING 

Special Reference Books for Nineteenth Century American Literature 

Starred volumes are especially valuable for high-school libraries. 

(For General References see p. oo.) 

I. History and General Criticism 

Baker, Guide to Best Fiction, Macmillan, N. Y., 1903. 
Baskervill, Southern Writers, 2 vols., Nashville, 1902, 191 1. 
*Blount, Intensive Studies in American Literature, Macmillan, N. Y., 

1914. 
BowEN, Makers of American Literature, Neale, Richmond, 1908. 
*Brownell, American Prose Masters, Scribner's, N. Y., 1909 (includes 

Cooper, Hawthorne, Emerson, Poe, Lowell, James). 
Burton, Literary Leaders of America, Scribner's, N. Y., 1904. 
*Canby, The Short Story in English, Holt, N. Y., 1909. 
Collins, Studies in Poetry and Criticism, Macmillan, N, Y., 1905. 
Cooper, Some American Story-Teller s. Holt, N. Y., 191 1. 
*Erskine, Leading American Novelists, Holt, N. Y., 1910 (includes 

Brown, Cooper, Hawthorne, Simms, Stowe, Harte). 
Fotheringham, Transcendentalism in New England. 
GoDDARD, Studies in New England Transcendentalism, Lemcke and 

Buechner, 1908. 
H ale, James Russell Lowell and his Friends, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 

1899. 
Higginson, Contemporaries, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1899. 
Howe, American Bookmen, Dodd, Mead, N. Y., 1898. 
Howells, *Literary Friends and Acquaintance, Harpers, N. Y., 1900. 

*My Literary Passions, Harpers, N. Y., 1895. 

*Criticism and Fiction, Harpers, N. Y., 1891. 
Lawton, The New England Poets, Macmillan, N. Y., 1898. 
*Lowell, Amy, Tendencies in Modern American Poetry, Macmillan, 

N. Y., 1917. 
Moses, The Literature of the South, Crowell, N. Y., 1910. 

The American Dramatists, Little, Brown and Company, N. Y., 

1911. 
Onderdonk, History of American Verse {1610-1897), McClurg, 

Chicago, 1 90 1. 
*Pattee, History of American Literature Since 1870, Century, N. Y., 

1915- 



Artistic or Creative Period: Western Group 375 

Payne, W. M., Leading American Essayists, Holt, N. Y., 1910. 

American Literary Criticism, Longmans, N. Y., 1904. 
Phelps, The Advance of English Poetry in the Twentieth Century 

Dodd Mead, N. Y., 1918. 
Sladen, Younger American Poets (i8jo-i8qo), Cassell, N. Y., 1891. 
*Stedman, Poets of America, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1899. 
Swift, Brook Farm, Macmillan, N. Y., 1900. 

Literary Landmarks of Boston, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1903. 
Vedder, American Writers of Today, Silver, N. Y., 1910. 
*ViNeENT, American Literary Masters, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1906. 
Whiting, Boston and Concord, Little, Brown and Company, N. Y., 

1911. 
Winter, Old Friends (Literary Recollections), Moffatt, N. Y., 1909. 

2. Anthologies and Selections 

*Stedman and Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, vols. V. 

to XL See p. 00. 
*Alderman, Harris, and Kent, Library of Southern Literature, 16 vols., 

Martin and Hoyt, Atlanta, 1907-1913. Contains biographical and 

critical essays and selections. 
*BoYNTON, American Poetry, Scribner's, N. Y., 1918. 
Bronson, *American Poems, University of Chicago Press, 1912. 

* American Prose, University of Chicago Press, 19 16. 
*Page, Chief American Poets, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1905. 
*Newcomer, Andrews, and Hall, Three Centuries of American 

Poetry and Prose, Scott Foresman, Chicago, 191 7. 
Calhoun and McAlarney, Readings from American Literature, Ginn, 

Boston, 191 5. 
Carpenter, Selections from American Prose, Macmillan, N. Y., 1898. 
Trent, Southern Writers, Macmillan, N. Y., 1905 (contains selections 

with brief biographical and critical sketches). 
^ Rittenhouse, The Little Book of American Poets {1787-igoo), 

Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 191 5. 

*The Little Book of Modern Poets, Houghton Mifflin, Boston. 
*MoNROE and Henderson, The New Poetry, An Anthology, Macmillan, 

N. Y., 191 7 (contains selections from more than 100 modern poets, 

English and American). 
*Quinn, Representative American Plays, Century, N. Y., 1917. 
*MosES, Representative Plays by American Dramatists, 3 vols., Button, 

N. Y., 1918. 



376 History of American Literature 

J. A Few Novels Dealing with Different Periods 

Before the Civil War: 

Eggleston, The Circuit Rider (Methodism in early Indiana); 
Roxy (Tippecanoe Campaign in Indiana). 

Churchill, The Crossing (Rogers and Clarke Expedition, etc.)- 

Post, Smith Brunt: A Story of the Old Navy (War of 1812). 

Pyle, Within the Capes: A Sea Story (War of 181 2). 

MuNROE, With Crockett and Bowie (Texas about 1835); 

Through Swamp and Glade (Florida during Seminole War). 

Atherton, Before the Gringo Came (Early California life) ; 
Los Cerritos (Southern California). 

Barr, Remember the Alamo (Texas Independence). 

Eggleston, The Hoosier Schoolmaster (Indiana about 1840). 

Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (Slavery Question about 1850). 
Civil War: 

Benson, Who Goes There? 

Churchill, The Crisis. 

Cable, The Cavalier. 

Cooke, Hilt to Hilt, Surrey of Eagle's Nest, Mohun, etc. 

Crane, The Red Badge of Courage. 

Frederic, The Copperhead and Other Northern .Stories. 

Glasgow, The Battle-G round. 

Johnston, The Long Roll, Cease Firing. 

Harris, Tales of the Home Folks in Peace and in War, On the Wing of 
Occasion. 

Henty, With Lee in Virginia. 

Page, The Burial of the Guns, Marse Chan, etc. 

Oldham, The Man from Texas. 

Trowbridge, The Three Scouts, The Drummer Boy, etc. 
Since the Civil War: Reconstruction and Development of the West 

Cable, John March, Southerner. 

Page, Red Rock. 

Sea WELL, Throckmorton. 

Jackson, Ramona (Indian Question). 

Overton, The Heritage of Unrest (Indians in New Mexico). 

WiSTER, The Virginian (Wyoming). 

Garland, A Son of the Middle Border. 

White, The Westerners, The Blazed Trail, etc. 

Mark Twain, Roughing It, Lif? on the Mississippi, Tom Sawyer, 
Huckleberry Finn, Pudd'n-Head Wilson, etc. 



